High Positivity of Antibodies against HIV Type 1, 2, O and P24 Antigen among Pregnant Women in Port Harcourt, Nigeria Okoli EM, Innocent-Adiele HC and Okonko IO Medical Microbiology Unit, Department of Microbiology, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria ADDITONAL FINDINGS INTRODUCTION RESULTS Development of effective interventions, including behavioral change, expansion of perinatal HIV prevention services and STI control, should be given the highest priority. This calls for urgent and concerted efforts aimed at promoting behavioural and socio-cultural changes that could reverse the current detection rate among Nigerian pregnant women. HIV and AIDS are global catastrophe, the biggest plague, and the worst Tsunami in human history. The United Nations has called HIV and AIDS the most devastating disease that mankind has ever faced. The pandemic of HIV infection ranks among the greatest infectious disease scourges in history. The HIV epidemic continues to be a burden globally and presents serious public health problems in developing countries especially in Nigeria. The results showed that 28(32.6%) of the pregnant women were positive for HIV. The study observed a significant relationship (p<0.05) between age and HIV seropositivity. The seropositivity was higher among age group 31-42 years of age 14(41.2%) than their counterparts in age group of 20 -30 years (26.9%). It showed that pregnant women with secondary education had the highest prevalence of HIV [15(46.9%)]. HIV prevalence to be higher among the singles (50.0%) than the married (32.1%). The study observed a significant relationship (p<0.05) between gestation period and HIV seropositivity. HIV prevalence was higher among unemployed pregnant women (47.8%). CONCLUSION This study has further confirmed the high positivity of antibodies to HIV type 1, 2, O and P24 antigen among pregnant women in Port Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria. Documented risk factors for contracting HIV-1/2 such as age, sex, marital status, occupations and education were used as bases for comparison. This study showed association between these variables of the pregnant women and HIV seropositivity. Fig.3 HIV prevalence in relation to age AIM This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of antibodies to HIV type 1, 2, O and P24 antigen among pregnant women in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. METHOD Antenatal HIV screening was carried out on 86 pregnant women aged, between 20 and 40 years at the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH) Port Harcourt using fourth generation ELISA for determination of anti-HIV-1, 2, O and P24 antigen. REFERENCES Sule, W.F., Adewumi, M.O. and Samuel, T.C. (2009). HIV specific antibodies among married pregnant women and female commercial sex workers attending voluntary counseling and HIV testing centre in Abuja, Nigeria. African Journal of Biotechnology 8 (6):941-948 Fig.1 HIV prevalence in relation to Gestation Period Fig.2 HIV prevalence in relation to occupation