A study on amoebiasis as an opportunistic infection in HIV/AIDS patients at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background: The immuno-compromised state of HN / AIDS patients makes them susceptible to various infections. Amoebiasis, caused by Entamoeba histolytica is believed to be an opportunistic infection in HIV/AIDS patients. However in Ghana there is no data to ascertain this assertion. Objective: To determine the opportunistic status of amoebiasis in HN / AIDS patients through determination of amoebic antibody sero-prevalence among diarrhoea and non-diarrhoea patients in relation to their blood CD4 + cell count. Study design and methodology: A sample size of 95 HN patients consisting of 43 non-diarrhoea and 52 diarrhoea patients were involved. They constituted 65 females and 30 males aged 20 to 60 years old. A rapid test kit, INSTANTTMCHEK-amoeba was used to determine the presence of anti-E. histolytica antibodies in patients' sera. Their blood CD4+ cell count was also determined using a FACS counter. Results were analyzed by using the Chi square test statistic with a 95% confidence limit and a significant level of 0.05, to determine the significant difference between anti E. histolytica antibodies positive in diarrhoea and non-diarrhoea HIV patients. Results: The overall prevalence of anti-E. histolytica antibodies in the study population was 13.7%. About 77.0% of these had low CD4+ cell count. The highest anti-E. histolytica antibody prevalence of 17.3 % was found in diarrhoea patients mostly, females and almost all of them 20-50 years old. There were no amoebic antibody sero-positives in patients with high CD4+ cell counts. There was no significant association between the detection of anti-E. histolytica antibodies in diarrhoea and non-diarrhoea HN/AIDS patients, considering theirCD4+ cell counts.(p=0.258). Conclusion: Amoebiasis could not be confirmed as an opportunistic infection in HIV/AIDS patients using amoebic antibody seroprevalence.