WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Richard Yomi Akele*, Agu Confidence Chidera, Bernard Oluwapelumi Oluboyo, Janet Funmilayo Akinseye, Emmanuel Jide Akele and Eleojo Grace Itodo

ABSTRACT

Bartonella henselae (Bh) is a fastidious, zoonotic, Gram-negative bacteria pathogen known to infect both immunocompetent and immunocompromised individuals. It is known to cause a range of clinical symptoms with bacillary angiomatosis and bacillary peliosis hepatitis being the most common complication in HIV patients. The clinical diagnosis of bacillary angiomatosis is readily missed for Kaposi’s sarcoma. The paucity of empirical data of its burden has led to its neglect, thus this cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate Bartonella henselae infection burden among HIV subjects attending Heart-to-Heart clinic at Federal Teaching Hospital Ido-Ekiti (FETHI). One hundred and eighty-four HIV infected subjects were evaluated for Bartonella henselae IgG and IgM using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). CD4+ count was collected from the information management system of the facility. The prevalence of Bartonella henselae IgG and IgM was 51% and 38% respectively. The seropositivity rate of Bartonella henselae IgG was higher among females (52%) and subjects who are yet to commence highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) [62%]. Prevalence rate of Bartonella henselae IgM was uniform across groups. Prevalence was not significantly influenced by sex, HAART and CD4+ count (p > 0.05). There is a high infection burden of Bartonella henselae among HIV infected patients attending the clinic at Federal Teaching Hospital Ido-Ekiti requiring attention in the management of these patients.

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