The intersection of Sickle Cell Disease and blood-borne viral infections remains a critical public health concern in Nigeria, where the high burden of hemoglobinopathies necessitates frequent therapeutic blood transfusions and injections. These essential life-saving interventions simultaneously elevate the vulnerability of patients to unsafe injection practices and transfusion-transmissible infections, like the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Hepatitis B Virus. This study aimed at determining the prevalence of HIV-HBV coinfection among all SCD patients, identify age variations and determines the risk factors for the coinfection in the study area. SCD status of the participants were confirmed by running an aliquot of the whole blood from the EDTA bottle for haemoglobin genotype on electrophoretic tank (Volkmann SAE 2761) with cellulose acetate paper at pH of 8.4. HIV testing was done using Nigerian National Serial algorithm for HIV testing. Hepatitis B statuses of the participants were tested using 2 chromatographic immunoassays. Three hundred and fifty Sickle cell disease (SCD) patients between 18 months and 45 years (mean age = 15.3±9.2 years) were systematically recruited for this study. Male to female ratio was 1:1.2; consisting of 160 male and 190 female participants. Twenty-four participants were HIV and HBV positive; making prevalence of HIV-HBV coinfection 6.9% among SCD in this study. The factors significantly associated with HIV-HBV coinfection in SCD patient were blood transfusion and where the blood was transfused. SCD patients with history of blood transfusion are 11 times at risk of the coinfection compared with those not transfused. Furthermore, those transfused in private hospitals are 5 times at risk of coinfection compared transfused in tertiary public hospital.

Keywords: Sickle cell Disease, HIV, HBV, Coinfection, Blood Transfusion.