Study design and setting
This study was a one-year longitudinal cross-sectional study of HIV infection seen at three ART clinics in Yangoji, Abaji and Kwali communities in Abaji and Kwali Local Government Areas of Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Nigeria. patient. This study was conducted from February 2022 to January 2023. The study area is mainly suburban and is the local area farthest from the FCT city center.
moral approval
Receive it from the local health authority (HEC/LHA:130A5) before study commencement. During the study period, eighty-five (85) cART patients of HIV-infected men and women recently diagnosed with diarrhea were recruited after obtaining verbal or written consent. One hundred thirty (130) patients exposed to cART were also screened for norovirus. The age range of study participants ranged from 18 to 60 years.
Sample collection and processing
Aseptically collect approximately 5 ml of blood into EDTA vacuum blood collection tubes. Participants were tested for HIV using two different immunochromatographic methods: Determine 1 & 2 (Inverness Medical Japan Co., Ltd) and STAT-PAK (Chembio Diagnostic System, New York, USA), with the winning protocol Unigold HIV Detection kit.
Participants collected fecal samples into universal containers with screw-top lids and transported them safely to the laboratory within thirty minutes of collection. Norovirus screening was performed using the AccuPower Norovirus Real-Time RT-PCR Kit (Bioneer, South Korea), an in vitro diagnostic kit designed for real-time detection of human samples such as stool and rectal swabs. Norovirus (GI, GII) RNA in . time PCR. The PCR protocol is a one-step master mix type with a vacuum dried master mix. All PCR protocols were performed on the Exicycler 96 PCR platform (Bioneer, Korea). AccuPower Norovirus Real-Time RT-PCR Kit includes positive control (PC), no template control (NTC) and internal positive control (IPC) for accurate and reliable diagnosis of norovirus. Test results were analyzed based on Ct (threshold cycle) values using ExiDiagnosis software. CD4 + cell counts were measured by flow cytometry (FACS scan, Beckton Dickinson, USA) in cART-naïve HIV-infected patients.