Frequency of HCV and HBV Co-infections in HIV Positive Patient in City of Iran: A Cross-sectional Study

Aims: One of the current crises of the society is prevalence rate of viral co-infection of hepatitis B and C among HIV patients.HIV, HBV, and HCV are major public health concerns. Because of shared routes of transmission, HIV-HCV coinfection and HIV-HBV coinfection are common. HIV-positive persons are at risk of being infected with HBV and HCV. Frequency of co-infection with HBV and HCV in HIV-patients is depended on the geographic regions and the type of exposure. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HIV, HBV and HCV co-infection in one of the medical educational centers of Lorestan province, Iran.
Study Design: This Cross-sectional One Shot Case Study Design to determine the prevalence of concurrent viral infection in the city of Khorramabad, Iran.
Place and Duration of Study: Razi Herbal Medicines Research Center, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran and Shohadaye Ashayer hospital, Khorramabad, Iran, in 2013
Methodology: This cross-sectional study was designed in 2013 in order to study the prevalence of co-infection among 500 outpatients and inpatients referring to Shohadaye Ashayer Hospital, Khorramabad, Lorestan province. The existence of specific antigen and antibody against the virus was determined by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay. (Demographic information was extracted from the patients' medical files and frequency of three viruses was calculated according to demographics information.
Results: 103 out of 500 studied serum samples were infected with HBV, HCV, and HIV viruses. Maximum infection was in the age range of more than 40 years old, which was equal to 23 patients (24.7%). 58 out of 103 samples were inpatients, 18 (9.4%) of whom were co-infected. 3 out of 103 studied samples (5.9%) who were co-infected with HIV/HBV/HCV were male. On the other hand, 4 (3.9%) male patients were infected with HIV/HBV and 4 (7.8%) male patients were co-infected with HBV/HCV. Also, 23 (22.3%) patients were co-infected with HIV/HCV; one (1.9%) was female and 22 (43.1%) were male.
Conclusion: Patients who have both hepatitis B and C infections when are associated with HIV infection the disease becomes more severe. By obtain frequency, relationship was detected between hospital care of patients and prevalence of con-infection. Due to frequent injections in the hospital and taking blood and its products, inpatients were more susceptible to infection than outpatients. So, the probability of their infection with viruses was higher than outpatients. This issue is a disturbing factor in medicinal centers which should receive more attention.