Seroprevalence of Human Herpesvirus Type 8 (HHV-8) Among People Living with HIV (PLHIV) Attending Babura General Hospital, Jigawa State.

Human Herpesvirus type 8 is among the frequent opportunistic infections among individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and may result in severe morbidity and mortality among this group of patients. It is known to be the causative agent of Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS), as well as other malignancies such as primary effusion lymphoma and multicentric Castleman’s disease. It is one of seven currently known human cancer viruses, or oncoviruss. This study investigate the prevalence of HHV8 antigen among PLWHA as well as its correlations with the patients CD4 counts and Viral loads. This cross-sectional study involved 182 blood sample collected from HIV Seropositive individuals attending antiretroviral therapy clinic (ART), Babura General Hospital, Jigawa State, Nigeria, these Sample were analysed for HHV-8 antigen using Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and CD4 cell Count. socio-demographic information such as age, gender, marital status was obtain from patient folder. Of the 182 subject studied, 6(3.3%) were tested positive for HHV-8 Antigen. All subjects (100%) who were HHV8 Positive have low CD4 Count and high HIV Viral loads. There was statistically significant difference between HHV8 and respondents CD4 Count (p = 0.001) and also respondents compliance to Clinic visit (p = 0.000). However, no association observed between HHV8 and respondents Gender and their Age. This study shows that individuals with higher CD4+ counts has zero prevalence of HHV8 infection and hence have low risk of developing complication from the virus, it also indicate thatHHV8 was higher among HIV patient with lower CD4 Counts and high HIV Viral load.