toxoplasmosis among hiv patients and healthy volunteers in port harcourt, rivers state, nigeria

Background: toxoplasmosis is a serious infection, especially among the immune-compromised people such as hiv/aids patients.objectives: this study assessed the seroprevalence and associated risk factors of toxoplasmosis among hiv patients and healthyvolunteers or immuno-competent persons (ip) in port harcourt.methods: a total of 400 (200 per group) randomly-selected sera were tested for igg and igm t. gondii antibodies using elisa technique.cd4cell counts were also determined. demographic and risk factors were determined using a well-structured questionnaire.results: overall seroprevalence for hiv and ip using igg and igm toxoplasma antibodies was 36.0%, 21.5%, and 1.5%, 7.0%, respectively.the age group f 40 years and above had the highest seroprevalence of 25.3% among the hiv positive persons, while the age groups25 - 29 years had the highest seroprevalence of 20.0% among the ip. traders’ positive with hiv had the highest seroprevalence of30.0% and 0.9% for igg and igm toxoplasma antibodies, respectively. hiv subjects with a secondary education showed the highestseroprevalence of 20.0%. more hiv positive females were infected with toxoplasmosis 18.5%. in all, 6.7% (p > 0.05) of the seropositivepatients had cd4 cell counts of less than 200 cells/l, indicating no correlation between seroprevalence and cd4 cell counts ofhiv/aids patients. risk factors in this study included the history of living with pets, farming and eating improperly-washed fruitsand vegetables.conclusions: seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis was high among hiv patients in port harcourt. it is suggested that the institutionsincluded the toxoplasmosis test as one of the routine tests for hiv patients.