Prevalence of human t-cell Lymphotropic, hepatitis b and c viruses among HIV patients in Mangu local government, plateau state

Background: Human T- cell Lymphotropic virus, Hepatitis B and C viruses have a common disease they cause “Cancer” apart from other diseases they are known to cause. Although the sites affected differ from one virus to the other. HBV and HCV cause cancer of the liver while HTLV cause cancer of the blood called “Adult T- cell Leukaemia/Lymphoma (ATLL)”. All the viruses also have a similar route of transmission with HIV which helps to facilitate their disease manifestations. Therefore, the study was carried out to detect these viral agents among the HIV positive individuals and to determine their coinfections. Materials and Methods: The research involved 180 subjects who individually completed a questionnaire each and donated blood sample for tests with ELISA and rapid screening methods for HTLV and Hepatitis B and C viruses respectively. Results: The prevalences of HTLV, HBV and HCV among the HIV positive Subjects were 0.6%, 8.3% and 5.5% respectively. Ages from 16-45 years had the highest infection rate with HBV (P ˂ 0.05); while those aged from 46-60 years were highest in HCV infection (P ˂ 0.05). However, HTLV had the lowest infection rate (0.6%) among the subjects. Conclusion: HIV infected individuals have higher risk of infection with viruses that share similar mode of transmission.