14. Socio-demographic and symptomatic clinical profile of patients with HIV infection in a tertiary health care facility in north western Nigeria

The epidemiology of HIV disease is not homogenous but continues to evolve. This study was aimed at identifying the sociodemographic profile and presenting symptoms of the disease amongst patients attending the virology clinic at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano, and to assess the relationship with known confounding factors. A total of 430 HIV infected patients attending the virology clinic at AKTH were recruited into the study. Medical records as obtained from the center were reviewed and pretested, structured and mainly closed ended questionnaires were administered on the patients to extract data on socio demographics, symptoms and attitude to retroviral tests. Data on 400 out of 430 patients were analysed with a mean age of 33.6 years. 67.2% of them were females and 29.5% had no formal education with 10.5% having postgraduate education. Only 12% earned above 35000 naira (230 USD) per month. Nearly 40% of them had at least 2 sexual partners and 60% of the study population came for retroviral test because of symptoms. Fever was the main presenting symptom in 28.3% of them, while cough brought 16.3% of them to the clinic, and premature labour occurred in less than 1% of them. Sexual habit was associated with economic status, level of education and marital status of the population. HIV infection was found to be common even among educated people with better income, thus asserting the evolving trend of the infection with associations that call for periodic assessment of the socio demographics and presenting patterns of the disease.