Electronic Journal of Biology

Incidence of HIV and AIDS in Ahoada, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Acquired Immune-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) in humans. A total of one hundred (100) persons including adults, teenagers, children and infants were screened for the presence of HIV antibodies as to determine the incidence of HIV and AIDS in Ahoada, a rural town near Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The investigation was carried out by obtaining serum from the blood of the individuals by centrifugation. The serum was subsequently used for the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) to determine the samples that were sero-positive or sero-negative for HIV. The results obtained showed that generally, 22 of the persons screened were sero-positive for HIV while 78 were sero-negative. Whereas sero-positive males and sero-negative males constituted 13% and 35% respectively, the sero-positive females and sero-negative females constituted 9% and 43% respectively. Of the sero-positive persons, 59.09% were males while 40.91% were females. The percentage of sero-positive persons under age classification was; adult males (36.36%), adult females (22.73%), teenage males (9.09%), teenage females (13.64%), male children (13.64%) and female children (4.45%). The order of decreasing incidence of HIV sero-positive persons within age group is Adult males > female teenagers > adult females > male teenagers > male children > female children. This study showed that, children who are not sexually active constituted 18.19% of sero-positive persons while teenagers and adults who are sexually active constituted 81.82% of sero-positive persons. All the adults are married while all the teenagers are not married. This paper aims at emphasizing the need for the control of this epidemic to avoid its spread in Ahoada and neighbouring communities where the awareness of the HIV epidemic is low.

Author(s): Obire O., Nwankwo U. Jeniffer, Ramesh R. Putheti

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