Sero-Prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV-1) among High Risk Groups in Abuja, Nigeria

Measurement of HIV prevalence among the general population as well as among specific sub-groups who are at high risk of infection is crucial for planning and for providing health care for those who are infected. This study was aimed to determine the prevalence of HIV-1 infection among high risk groups in Abuja. The testing for the presence of HIV antibodies was carried out using Determine® HIV-1/2 Test Cards (Inverness Medical, Japan), UnigoldTM kit (Trinity Biotech, Ireland) and Stat Pak® HIV-1/2 (Chembio Diagnostic Systems, Inc. USA). A total of 1587 high risk persons were screened for HIV-1, 739 (46.6%) were males while 848 (53.4%) were females. 261 (16.4%) tested HIV-1 positive, out of which 74 (5.3%) were males and 190 (11.1%) were females. This study indicates that the incidence of HIV-1 is higher among the females. Prevalence is higher within the age range of 26 - 30 years (5.17%) and highest prevalence was observed within the age range of 31 - 35 years in males (1.32%) and of 26 - 30 years in females (3.91%). Commercial sex workers had the highest prevalence of HIV-1 (7.01%), while Commercial Motorcyclists had the least (2.02%) (p ≤ 0.05). This study has shown that there are local sub-epidemics of HIV infection in Abuja.