Prevalence and determinants of antibodies to hepatitis C virus and markers for hepatitis B virus infection in patients with HIV infection in Aquitaine

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis C virus and serological markers for hepatitis B virus infection in patients with HIV. Design: Cross sectional survey. Setting: Aquitaine, southwestern France, 1991-94. Subjects: 1935 HIV positive patients seen at least once since June 1991. Main outcome measures: Presence of antibodies to hepatitis C virus were detected by second or third generation enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) and markers for hepatitis B virus detected by ELISA. Results: The prevalence was 42.5% (823) for antibodies to hepatitis C virus, 56.4 (507) for antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen, 6.9% (133) for hepatitis B surface antigen, 30.2% (584) for antibodies to hepatitis B core and surface antigen with no detectable surface antigen, 26.2% (507) for antibodies to core antigen only, and 4.8% (92) for antibodies to surface antigen only. The prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis C virus was 86.1% (726/843) in subjects who had bloodborne HIV infection and 7.3% (66/899) in those with sexually acquired infection. The prevalence of markers for hepatitis B was higher among homosexuals than in the other groups of patients, except for antibodies to surface antigen alone. The relation between markers for hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus was negative among men but positive among women. Conclusions: The results favour the hypothesis that hepatitis C virus is sexually transmitted much less commonly than either HIV or hepatitis B virus.