Human Immunodeficiency Virus Status in Malnourished Children seen at Lagos

IntroductionHuman immunodeficiency virus and protein energy malnutrition are still prevalent in Nigeria and the occurrence of the two conditions together confers a poor prognosis. The aim of this study was to determine the current categories of malnutrition amongst under 5 children in Lagos, document their HIV status and determine any peculiarities in the clinical features, haematological and some biochemical profile in these children.MethodsThe study was a prospective crossectional study conducted at the Paediatric department of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and the Massey Street Children’s Hospital over a 6 month period. All the subjects had anthropometry, HIV testing, full blood count and serum proteins done. The factors associated with HIV status were determined with the logistic regression analysis.ResultsTwo hundred and fourteen (214) malnourished children ≤5 years were recruited into the study and 25(11.7%) were HIV positive. One hundred and five (49.1%) of the participants had moderate malnutrition while 25.2% had severe forms of malnutrition. Fever, cough and diarrhea were the commonest symptoms. Severe wasting, oral thrush, dermatoses and splenomegaly were seen more commonly in the HIV positive subjects. The haematological indices were comparable in the two groups, however, the total protein was significantly higher in the HIV positive subjects compared to the negative group (p=0.042). Multivariate analysis showed that the total protein (p=0.001) and platelet count (p=0.016) could significantly predict the occurrence of HIV in the malnourished childrenConclusionThe presence of severe wasting, oral thrush, diarrhea, splenomegaly, thrombocytopenia and high total proteins in malnourished children should heighten the suspicion of possible underlying associated HIV infection. This study reinforces the recommendation by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that all malnourished children should have mandatory HIV screening.