Prevalence of anaemia among HIV-infected patients in Benin City, Nigeria

The aim of this study was to use the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of anaemia to determine prevalence of anaemia among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients on the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and those that are HAART naive. Haemoglobin concentration was measured in 457 HIV patients consisting of 217 patients on HAART (86 males and 131 females) and 240 HAART naive patients (106 males and 134 females). According to WHO criteria, anaemia was defined as a haemoglobin concentration below 12g/dl in women and below 13g/dl in men. The anaemic HIV patients were further categorized according to WHO/ACTG anaemia toxicity grades. An overall anaemia prevalence of 60.61% was observed. The prevalence of anaemia was significantly higher among HAART naive patients (69.17%) than in HIV patients on HAART (51.15%) (P < 0.001). The prevalence of anaemia differ significantly (P < 0.05) between males and females of HAART naive patients with males (76.42%) having higher prevalence than females (63.43%). The WHO/ACTG categorization showed the same pattern between HIV patients on HAART and those that were HAART naive. Conclusively, the overall prevalence of anaemia was 60.61% among HIV patients. HAART naive patients have higher prevalence as well as males in this group. The WHO definition of anaemia is recommended as this will give the true prevalence of anaemia and allow for policy and interventions to address it.