title: HIV, HBV and HCV Coinfection Prevalence in Iran--A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  worldwide, hepatitis C and B virus infections (HCV and HCV), are the two most common coinfections with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and has become a major threat to the survival of HIV-infected persons. The review aimed to estimate the prevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV, HIV/HCV and HIV/HBV and triple coinfections in different subpopulations in Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  Following PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of reports on prevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV and HIV coinfections in different subpopulations in Iran. We systematically reviewed the literature to identify eligible studies from January 1996 to March 2012 in English or Persian/Farsi databases. We extracted the prevalence of HIV antibodies (diagnosed by Elisa confirmed with Western Blot test), HCV antibodies and HBsAg (with confirmatory laboratory test) as the main primary outcome. We reported the prevalence of the three infections and coinfections as point and 95% confidence intervals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HIV prevalence varied from %0.00 (95% CI: 0.00-0.003) in the general population to %17.25 (95% CI: 2.94-31.57) in people who inject drugs (PWID). HBV prevalence ranged from % 0.00 (95% CI: 0.00-7.87) in health care workers to % 30.9 (95% CI: 27.88-33.92) in PWID. HCV prevalence ranged from %0.19 (95% CI: 0.00-0.66) in health care workers to %51.46 (95% CI: 34.30-68.62) in PWID. The coinfection of HIV/HBV and also HIV/HCV in the general population and in health care workers was zero, while the most common coinfections were HIV/HCV (10.95%), HIV/HBV (1.88%) and triple infections (1.25%) in PWID.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found that PWID are severely and disproportionately affected by HIV and the other two infections, HCV and HBV. Screenings of such coinfections need to be reinforced to prevent new infections and also reduce further transmission in their community and to others.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.|Department of Epidemiology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Fahimeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bagheri Amiri
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran.|Research Centre for Emerging and Reemerging infectious diseases, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Akanlu, Kabudar Ahang, Hamadan, Iran.|Regional Knowledge Hub, and WHO Collaborating Centre for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Ehsan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mostafavi
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, United States of America.|Regional Knowledge Hub, and WHO Collaborating Centre for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mirzazadeh
mesh_terms: D060085:Coinfection / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence