PROJECT PROPOSAL OCCULT HEPATITIS B VIRUS INFECTION AMONG HIV POSITIVE PATIENTS IN IBADAN, OYO STATE

ABSTRACT

A cross sectional study was carried out among HIV positive patients attending St. Mary Catholic General Hospital, Eleta, Ibadan.

All data obtained from subjects in the course of this study were strictly treated as confidential.

One hundred and fifty (n = 150) serum samples were randomly collected from the people living with HIV who have given their informed consent. These samples was screened for hepatitis B serological markers (i.e. HBsAg, anti-HBs, HBeAg, HBeAb and anti-HBc) using a commercial rapid test (Micropoint Diagnostics and Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Canada). The sensitivity and specificity of the rapid test are> 99% and 97.0%, respectively.  

Viral DNA was extracted from serum samples using commercially available QIAampDNA Blood Mini kit (Qiagen GmbH, Hilden, Germany) 

The seropositive samples for the serological markers were further confirmed using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay kits 

Detection and quantification of circulating HBV in serum play an important role in diagnosing and monitoring HBV infection as well as assessing response to therapy (Pawlotsky, 2002). 

The presence of HBV-DNA was examined in all samples using a routine diagnostic PCR in the reference laboratory. Primer pairs were designed from the highly conserved overlapping regions of the S and P regions of the HBV genome.