Frequency of human immunodeficiency virus infection among students of tertiary and secondary institutions in an endemic state
Abubakar, A.
North American Journal of Medical Sciences 4(4): 170-173
2012
ISSN/ISBN: 0002-9629 PMID: 22536559 DOI: 10.4103/1947-2714.94941Document Number: 535097
Students are pivotal to manpower development and technological advancement of any nation. Nigerian nation was recently ranked third human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) most endemic nation in the world The study was designed to determine the frequency of HIV infection among Nigerian tertiary and secondary institution students. A HIV screening test was conducted on 1,978 apparently healthy students composed of 981 males and 997 females aged 11-35 years, randomly selected from some Nigerian tertiary and secondary institutions Overall, the sero-prevalence rate of 13.7% was recorded consisting 9.9% in the tertiary and 3.8% in secondary institutions. The distribution of the infection showed no significant difference by age (χ(2)=1.07, P>0.05) and by gender (χ(2)=0.85, P>0.05). Also, the prevalence had no significant association with the settlement of students (χ(2)=0.96, P>0.05) and the status of educational institutions (χ(2)=1.42, P>0.05). The findings indicate a high HIV prevalence rate among students in this part of the globe. General behavioral changes about sex among the students are suggested.