Background: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is associated with a decline of immunity and progression to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). This current study was aimed at evaluating the serum level of Interleukin-8 (IL-8), CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells counts among newly diagnosed Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-positive adults in Sokoto-Nigeria.

Materials and methods: A total of 60 adults were enrolled into the study, comprising of 30 newly diagnosed HIV seropositive subjects and 30 age-and sex-matched apparently healthy controls. CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells were enumerated using flow cytometry. Serum IL-8 was analyzed using ELISA kit. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 statistical package. A p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant in all statistical comparisons.

Results: The mean of CD4+ (632.63 ± 34.83 cells/μl), CD8+ (579.98 ± 30.74 cells/μl) and CD4+/CD8+ ratio (1.10 ± 0.03 cells/μl) were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in controls compared to newly diagnosed HIV patients (160.60 ± 29.47 cells/μl, 521.10 ± 46.34cells/μl and 0.32 ± 0.52 respectively. The mean of IL-8 (6.56 ± 0.09 pg/ml) was significantly (p < 0.05) lower in controls compared to newly diagnosed patient IL-8 (6.60 ± 0.07 pg/ml). There were insignificant negative correlation between IL-8 and CD4+ (r = -0.064, p > 0.05) as well as CD8+ (r = -0.074, p > 0.05) in controls. And conversely, an insignificant positive correlation occurred between IL-8 and CD4+ (r = 0.025, p > 0.05) as well as CD8+ (r = 0.016, p > 0.05) in newly diagnosed HIV patients. Moreover, it has also shown a statistically insignificant positive correlation between IL-8 and CD4+/CD8+ ratio (r = 0.039, p > 0.05) in controls compared to newly diagnosed HIV patients where it shows a statistically insignificant negative correlation between the IL-8 and CD4+/CD8+ ratio (r = -0.076, p > 0.05).

Conclusion: It could be concluded that, both CD4+, CD4+/ CD8+ ratio in newly diagnosed HIV patients are significantly decrease compared to controls (p < 0.05), while serum IL-8 was significantly increased, the serum levels of IL-8 did not correlate with CD4+ T-cells and CD8+ T-cells population, as well as CD4+/CD8+ ratio.