High seroprevalence of bloodborne viruses among street-recruited injection drug users from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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.
Weissenbacher
Mercedes
M
Centro Nacional de Referencia para el SIDA, Facultad de Medicina, Buenos Aires, Argentina. mweissen@fmed.uba.ar
Rossi
Diana
D
Radulich
Graciela
G
Sosa-Estáni
Sergio
S
Vila
Marcelo
M
Vivas
Enrique
E
Avila
María M
MM
Cuchi
Paloma
P
Rey
Jorge
J
Peralta
Liliana Martínez
LM
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