title: High seroprevalence of bloodborne viruses among street-recruited injection drug users from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
abstract: Injection drug use is the main mechanism of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission in Argentina (40% of reported AIDS cases in Argentina). This study was conducted among street-recruited injection drug users (IDUs) from Buenos Aires, with the aim of estimating seroprevalence and coinfection of HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human T-lymphotropic viruses (HTLVs). A total of 174 volunteers participated in this study; 137 were men (78.7% of volunteers). The average age of the participants was 30 years. Only 64 of participants (37%) had no viral infection, whereas 110 (63%) were infected with > or =1 viruses. Seroprevalences were 44.3% for HIV, 54.6% for HCV, 42.5% for HBV, 2.3% for HTLV-I, and 14.5% for HTLV-II. Among the 77 HIV-infected persons, only 6.5% (5 persons) were not coinfected with other viruses; 88.3% (68) were coinfected with HCV and 68.8% (53) were coinfected with HBV. We demonstrated the existence of multiple viral infections with a high rate of prevalence in IDUs in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.affiliation: Centro Nacional de Referencia para el SIDA, Facultad de Medicina, Buenos Aires, Argentina. mweissen@fmed.uba.ar
authors.forename: Mercedes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weissenbacher
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: Graciela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Radulich
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sosa-Estáni
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vila
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vivas
authors.forename: María M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Avila
authors.forename: Paloma
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cuchi
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rey
authors.forename: Liliana Martínez
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Peralta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001118:Argentina / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006678:HIV; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015528:HIV Seroprevalence; D015491:HTLV-II Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016174:Hepacivirus; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016485:Needle Sharing; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous