Prevalence of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in HIV Positive and other Patients Attending Selected Hospitals in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a systemic disease, involving tissues and multiple organs often damaged by pathogenic autoantibodies and immune complexes. The research was undertaken to determine the incidence of SLE among middle-aged female patients in respect to their HIV status, attending selected Hospital Kaduna State. A total of 100 middle-aged female patients were selected randomly comprising of 50 blood samples of HIV negative and 50 samples of HIV positive patients and assayed to confirm their HIV status using the Determine HIV-1/2 test Strip. SLE latex agglutination test was used to determine the presence of SLE antibodies in the among the study population test. A total of 27 patients tested positive for SLE representing 27% prevalence among the study population. In respect to their HIV status, 25 (50%) of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) positive patients were positive for SLE while only 2 (4%) were SLE positive among the HIV negative patients. In respect to age range among the HIV positive patients, patients aged 45 and above had the highest prevalence of SLE of 78% followed by those between 35 and 44 years which had a prevalence of 57%.The least prevalence was found in the lower age range of 18 – 24 years. Among the HIV, HIV negative patients that presented with malaria, typhoid, diabetes all tested negative for SLE while only 6% of those with generalized fever tested positive for SLE. It was also found that the single patient with Rheumatoid arthritis tested positive for SLE. Keywords: Systemic Lupus erythematosus, Human Immunodeficiency Virus antibodies, Rheumatoid arthriti