Etiology of sexually transmitted infections among people living with HIV (PLWHIV) within meme division in Cameroon: seroprevalence and factors associated with transmission

Abstract

Introduction Sexually transmitted infections are of great public health importance. The screening of these infections not being part of the routine healthcare package for PLWHIV means most of the infected individuals who are asymptomatic end up being undetected. This study aims to determine the seroprevalence of syphilis, chlamydia, and HBV among PLWHIV in Meme division. Additionally, it aimed to assess the factors associated with STI transmission. Methods A hospital-based cross-sectional design was adopted that recruited a total of 364 PLWHIV from the urban and rural communities in Meme division from December 2024 to April 2025. About 4 mL of blood was collected and placed in a sodium citrated tube. The sample was used for ABO blood grouping, syphilis, hepatitis B, and chlamydia screening using serological assays. The data was analysed using SPSS version 25. Fisher’s exact test was used to determine the difference in proportions and logistic regression model was used to determine risk factors associated with STI transmission. p -values <0.05 were considered as statistically significant. Results The overall seroprevalence of syphilis, HBV and chlamydia infection among PLWHIV from rural areas was 30/150 (20%) [95% CI 0.139–0.273], 13/150 (8.7%) [95% CI 0.047–0.143] and 6/150 (4.0%) [95% CI 0.014–0.085] while in urban area the seroprevalence was 41/214 (19.2%) [95% CI 0.141–0.250], 33/214 (15.4%) [95% CI 0.108–0.209] and 5/214 (2.3%) [95% CI 0.007–0.053] respectively. A couple of the individuals were infected with at least more than one STI. Multivariate analysis shows that females had a lower odd to STI infection (AOR = 0.468, 95% CI 0.252–0.867, p < 0.016), having multiple sexual partners had a lower odd to STI (AOR = 0.346, 95% CI 0.160–0.748, p < 0.007), bathing before and after sexual intercourse recorded a lower odd to STI (AOR = 0.458, 95% CI 0.272–0.772, p < 0.003) as well as those who reported having sex 1–3 times a week also had a lesser odd to STI (AOR = 0.526, 95% CI 0.296–0.935, p < 0.029). Conclusion Sexually transmitted infection was high among PLWHIV in Meme division with individuals from rural communities having the highest prevalence of infections. The most dominant of these infections was syphilis followed by HBV and lastly Chlamydia.