Hepatitis C prevalence in children with perinatal human immunodeficiency virus infection enrolled in a long-term follow-up protocol.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in children with perinatal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.


METHODS
Cross-sectional substudy.


METHODS
Multicenter study from 41 sites in the United States.


METHODS
Children with perinatal HIV infection were randomly selected from a large, long-term, follow-up protocol.


METHODS
Hepatitis C infection was defined as having positive test results on both HCV antibody and HCV RNA assays.


RESULTS
Five hundred thirty children enrolled in the substudy; definitive HCV test results were available for 525 children. Eighty-three percent were of a minority race or ethnicity. They were equally distributed by sex, had a median age of 10.7 years, and were relatively healthy, with 75% having CD4+ lymphocyte counts greater than 500 cells/mm3. Eight of 525 children (1.5%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.7%-3.0%) infected with HIV were coinfected with HCV. In contrast, the rate of HCV infection in a serosurvey of more than 2700 children aged 6 to 11 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was 0.2% (95% CI, 0.04%-0.6%). In our study, there were no differences between children coinfected with HIV and HCV and those without HCV infection in terms of demographic characteristics, CD4+ or CD8+ T-lymphocyte counts, HIV 1 RNA levels, preterm or mode of delivery, or liver disease; however, the number of children coinfected with HIV and HCV was small.


CONCLUSIONS
While HCV prevalence infection rates are low in children with perinatal HIV infection, they are 8 to 10 times higher than reported in HCV serosurveys of children in the United States.
Schneider Children's Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY 11042, USA. schuval@lij.edu
Susan
S
Schuval
Russell B
RB
Van Dyke
Jane C
JC
Lindsey
Paul
P
Palumbo
Lynne M
LM
Mofenson
James M
JM
Oleske
Joseph
J
Cervia
Andrea
A
Kovacs
Wayne N
WN
Dankner
Elizabeth
E
Smith
Barbara
B
Nowak
Gregory
G
Ciupak
Nancy
N
Webb
Michelle
M
Eagle
Dorothy
D
Smith
Roslyn
R
Hennessey
Melissa
M
Goodman-Kerkau
Myron J
MJ
Levin
D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000151:congenital* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011336:Probability; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D019562:Viral Load