Epidemiological, Clinical and Biological Aspects of Childhood HIV in Libreville

Introduction: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a chronic viral infection characterized by the progressive destruction of CD4 T lymphocytes. Its prevalence in Gabon is estimated 4.1% with approximately 2,500 affected children. This pathology remains a real public health problem on a global scale. The objective of our work was to describe the epidemiological, clinical and biological aspects of HIV-positive children in Libreville.

Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study which involved patients followed in the four major pediatric care centers in Libreville from January 2015 to December 2022. We included all complete medical records of children and adolescents aged 0 to 19 years with positive HIV serology or PCR.

Results: The mean age was 10.6 ± 5.1 years. The 10-14 year old group represented 32.3%. The sex ratio was 1.13 male to female. In our study 46.9% were orphans and they were more affected by academic delay (51.9% versus 45.7%). The clinical signs were dominated by fever (40.6%). The main opportunistic infection found was digestive (7.3%) and tuberculosis represented the first co-infection (13.2%). We had 5.2% of patients with acute malnutrition.

Conclusion: HIV-AIDS in children remains a public health problem given its socio-economic impact on the population. The cost of follow-up assessments and hospitalizations are among the problems that slow down the regular follow-up of our patients.