title: The association of health-care use and hepatitis C virus infection in a random sample of urban slum community residents in southern India.
abstract: To determine whether health-care use was associated with prevalent hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in Chennai, India, 1,947 adults from 30 slum communities were randomly selected to be interviewed about parenteral and sexual risks for HCV infection and to provide biological specimens for HCV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing. Prevalent HCV infection was detected in 2.4% of non-injection drug using (IDU) participants. Controlling for other associated factors, and excluding IDU, men who used informal health-care providers were five times as likely to be HCV infected as those who did not use informal providers (Adjusted Odds Ratio, AOR = 5.83; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.57, 21.6), a finding not detected in women. More research is needed to determine the extent to which HCV infection is associated with reuse of contaminated injection equipment in health-care settings in developing countries.
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA. mmarx@health.nyc.gov
authors.forename: Melissa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Marx
authors.forename: K G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Murugavel
authors.forename: Sudha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sivaram
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Balakrishnan
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Steinhoff
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Anand
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Suniti
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Solomon
authors.forename: David D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Celentano
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D011203:Poverty; D015995:Prevalence; D011781:Quackery / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014504:Urban Health