Information is very scarce on the prevalence of hepatitis-B virus (HBV) infection among blood donors and patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in Nigeria. Hepatitis-B surface antigen (HBsAg) ELISA was used to determined the prevalence of HBsAg among 175 blood donors (aged 20-40 years) and Key words: hepatitis B virus -human immunodeficiency virus -blood donor -prevalenceHepatitis B virus (HBV) is the most common cause of serious liver infection in the world. It is estimated that worldwide more than two billion people have been infected by HBV and 350 million people have chronic infection (Drosten et al. 2004). The HBV, highly contagious and relatively easy to transmit from one infected individual to another, by blood-to-blood contact, during birth, unprotected sex, and by sharing needles, has relatively higher prevalence in the tropics (Finlayson et al. 1999).Nigeria is classified among the group of countries highly endemic for HBV infection. About 75% of the Nigerian population is reportedly likely to have been exposed to HBV at one time or the other in their life (Sirisena et al. 2002). There is a high level of occurrence of blood demanding health conditions in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. In Nigeria the increase in road accidents, pregnancy-related hemorrhage, armed robbery attacks, and violent events, increase the possibility of the transmission of HBV (and other blood-borne pathogens) through contaminated blood as reported by United Nations System in Nigeria (UNSN 2001).Coinfection with HBV and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a rapidly growing public health concern. The sub-Saharan Africa has been most severely affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic with almost 9% of its adult (2003). The report also indicated that some parts of the country were worse affected than others but no state is unaffected. All the states of Nigeria have general population epidemics of over 1% with some areas having prevalence higher than 10%. Furthermore, the infection cuts across both sexes and all age groups but youths between the ages 20-29 years are more infected. According to UNAIDS (2000), the HIV prevalence rate among Nigerian girls (15-24 years) by the end of 1999, was in the range of 4.35 to 5.89 compared to boys to 1.68 to 3.35 in the same age range.Information is very scarce on the prevalence of HBV among healthy blood donors and patients with HIV infection in Nigeria. As a result of this dearth of information, guidelines, and other adequate information on the preventive and control measures are essentially lacking in many settings in Nigeria. Our objective therefore was to determine the prevalence of HBV infection among voluntary blood donors and HIV-infected individuals using HBsAg serological assay, with the view to establishing effective guidelines on the prevention and control of HBV infection in this part of the globe.This study was part of preliminary investigation leading to advanced research on HBV and HIV coinfection in Nigeria.

Cuticular hydrocarbons of larvae of individual strains of the

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Purpose: Microsporidial infections have been recognized as an increasingly important infection in immuncompromised patients, particularly those infected with HIV/AIDS. This study was designed to study immune responses associated with experimental Encephalitozoon intestinalis infection in immunocompetent rats. Materials and Methods: Thirty-four Rats in 3 groups, A (Control), B (Intraperitoneal) and C (Oral) were given injections of 0.5 ml of 2 x 10 6 of puriÞ ed spores of Encephalitotozoon intestinalis spores and were observed for serum speciÞ c IgG for 21 days using both direct and indirect ELISA. Results: In indirect ELISA, speciÞ c lgG were detected on days 7, 14 and 21 for the group B rats and on day 21 for group C and in direct ELISA method, speciÞ c lgG were detected in-group B rats on days 7 and 21, for group C rats on day 21 only, while in the control rats, speciÞ c lgG were not detected. There was no signiÞ cant difference between the direct and indirect methods (df=1, X 2 , P>0.05). E. intestinalis was observed in stool samples of rats in 1/12 (08.33%) on days 14 and 21 in group B, and in 4/10 (33.33%), 3/10 (25.00%) and 2/10 (16.67%) on days 7, 14 and 21 respectively in group C. In group A, which is the control rats, no microsporidia were observed on days 0, 7, 14 and 21. Conclusions: There were no changes in the T-lymphocyte counts of rats prior to and after inoculation with spores. Extensive lesions were observed along the intestinal walls especially on the middle and lower sections of group C rats only.

Examination of chromatograms of karyotyped larvae of Anopheles gambiae s.s. and Anopheles arabiensis has revealed that there are differences in the profile of their epicuticular hydrocarbons. A discriminant analysis of the quantitative hydrocarbon data has shown that the An. gambiae Mopti 2Rbc/bc karyotype from Mali could be separated from the Forest 2La/a karyotype from Liberia in > 80% of cases. Similar analysis permitted > 80% separation of individuals of two karyotypes of Anopheles arabiensis: 2Rab/ + from Burkina Faso, and 2Rb/b from Madagascar.