Abstract
Background:
Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) is a sexually transmitted virus that is the most common cause of genital ulceration worldwide. The increasing evidence that HSV-2 infection could significantly enhance the rates of sexual transmission and acquisition of hu-man immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in developing countries informed our design of this study.Objective:
To determine the seroprevalence and co-infection of HSV-2 and HIV and to evaluate their association with demographic factors among adults (?15yrs) in Pankshin.Methods:
One hundred and eighty blood samples were collected from adults, age ?15 years from Town Clinic Pankshin and General hospital Billang Shippang in Pankshin Local Govern-ment Area of Plateau State. DetermineTM and Stat pak rapid test kits were used to screen the collected samples for antibodies to HIV. The seroprevalence of HSV-2 was determined using Diapro HSV-2 type specific ELISA Kit according to the manufacturers instructional manual.Results:
The estimated prevalence of HSV-2 was 24.4% and it was higher among women (26.09%) than among men (21.53%). That of HIV was 19.49%; men had a prevalence rate of 4.69% while that of women was 5.22%.Conclusion:
HSV-2 antibodies were frequent in the study group, genital herpes was not re-ported by the HSV-2 positive subjects, indicating low awareness of the HSV-2 infection. The prevalence of HIV however was not that significant. The percentage of co-infection was 2.8%.Keywords
Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 Human Immunodeficiency Virus Pankshin Plateau State Nigeria.
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© 2012, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.