Background: Cervical cancer is the commonest genital tract cancer worldwide, and has a high burden of morbidity and mortality in developing countries of which Nigeria is part of. Human immune deficiency virus (HIV) increases the risk of dysplastic changes in the cervix leading to increasing premalignant and malignant lesions of the cervix. Pregnant HIV positive women may be at a higher risk of having pre-invasive cervical lesions. Pregnancy presents an opportunity to screen women of reproductive age for the premalignant lesions of the cervix using Pap smear. Objectives: The objective of this study is to study the association between the cytological patterns of Pap smear of pregnant women who are HIV positive and the viral load levels at the antenatal clinic of Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki (AE-FUTHA). Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study that involved collecting Pap smear from consenting HIV positive pregnant women attending antenatal clinic of AE-FUTHA. One hundred pregnant HIV positive women who fulfilled the inclusion criteria and gave consent were recruited into the study by consecutive sampling method. A pretested questionnaire was administered to the women to get needed information for the study. Papanicolaou smear test was done on each of the participants. Blood samples were collected from the antecubital veins of the forearms of the HIV positive women and sent to the laboratory for estimation of viral load. The data were analysed using Epi info version 7.2.1. The continuous variables were presented as mean and standard deviation while categorical variables were presented as numbers and percentages. Categorical variables were analysed using Chi square (Fisher’s exact test was also used), while means were compared using t-test. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Result: The prevalence of abnormal Pap smear among HIV positive pregnant women was 24%. There was no relationship between viral load and abnormal Pap smear for HIV positive women with viral load less than 1000 copies per ml. Conclusion: This study has demonstrated no association between viral load and abnormal smear in HIV positive pregnant women.
