Alaofin Omotayo Solomon
Background There is a high risk of malaria infection among pregnant people living with human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Co-infection between HIV and malaria has been responsible for higher cases of complication in pregnancy. Objective The aim of this study is to determine the burden of malaria among HIV positive pregnant women in the north central zone, Nigeria. Methods This study is a retrospective chart review of 1,048 medical case files of female patients living with HIV at six semi-urban secondary hospital facilities. Continuous variable such as patient age was summarised as mean ± SD and compared using students t – test. Categorical variable was expressed as proportion and compared using Chi-square and Fisher’s exact test. The level of significance was kept at p ≤ 0.05. The statistical analysis was carried out using statistical package for social sciences (25.0). Results The case files indicated that, only 161 (10.9%) of the patient were pregnant and recruited for the study. A malaria prevalence of 121 (75.2%) was reported among HIV positive pregnant individuals. The mean age ± SD of the patients is 28.7 ± 5.30, while the mean years of HIV positive is 3.90. Pregnancy complications, hospitalization and opportunistic infection are associated health outcomes among co-infected patients. ConclusionHigh prevalence of HIV/malaria co-infection was reported among the study population. Increased coverage of insecticide treated bed nets and providing job opportunities could reduce the malaria prevalence.