Prevalence and risk factors for chronic hepatitis B in HIV patients attended at a sexually-transmitted disease clinic in Vitoria, Brazil

Abstract

This study assessed the prevalence of and correlated factors for chronic hepatitis B infection (HBV) among HIV patients attending the Reference Center for Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) and AIDS in Vitória, ES, Brazil. HIV patients were studied from 1993 to 2004, using information recorded in a database of the STI Clinic. Demographic data, clinical characteristics, patterns of risk behavior and test results (ELISA-HIV, IFA-HIV, HBsAg, viral load and CD4 counts) were analyzed. We analyzed 851 HIV patients. Median age was 35.0 (interquartile range 30; 42) years and median years of education was 8.0 (IQR 5; 11). The prevalence of chronic HBV was 3.8% (95% CI 2.5-5.1). Illicit drug use was reported in 185 (21.7%) cases, alcohol abuse in 80 (9.4%) cases, men who have sex with men in 116 (13.6%) cases, and past STI in 320 (37.6%) cases. Chronic HBV was associated with intravenous drug use, male gender, STI associated with HIV diagnosis, and death. There is a need for prevention and assistance strategies to control the evolution of this infection in HIV patients.

Hepatitis B, C and Hiv Co-Infections Seroprevalence in a Northeast Brazilian Center

“…HBV/HIV and HCV/HIV prevalences were 3.7% and 5.4% respectively. These are in accordance with other Brazilian published data, in which values ranged from 2.8%-4.6% for HBV/HIV co-infection (7,15,19) and 4%-6.4% for HCV/HIV association (6,7,17) . Similar to our study, these researches tested HIV patients who were in medical follow-up in infectious disease centers in four distinct Brazilian cities: São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Amazonas and Vitória.…”

“…Other studies also reported a higher frequency of these co-infections among men and most of them describe the age interval of 35 -40 years as the most prevalent (11,15,17,19,20) . A considerable percentage of patients referred to have multiple sexual partner/year.…”

“…Also a significant number of co-infected individuals are asymptomatic carriers of hepatitis viruses, which leads to a delayed diagnosis and under notification. In brazilian studies, HBV/HIV prevalence ranges from 2.8% to 4.8%, whereas HCV/HIV co-infection rates vary from 4.4% to 36.2% (6,14,15,17,19) . The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of the HBV and HCV infection in a recently diagnosed HIV population in the state of Ceará -Brazil.…”

A Population-based Survey of the Prevalence of HIV, Syphilis, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C Infections, and Associated Risk Factors Among Young Women in Vitória, Brazil

“…Studies of syphilis infection have found 1.2% of pregnant women have markers for latent infection, and up to 16.0% of female prisoners have these markers (Costa et al, 2007;Miranda et al 2000). Chronic HBV has been identified in 1.1% of women presenting for antenatal care (Miranda et al, 2001; Lima and Tanure, 2003), 5.4% of women attending an STI clinic (Miranda et al, 1999), 7.4% among female prisoners (Miranda et al, 2000) and 3.8% of female HIVinfected patients (Zago et al, 2007). Anti-HCV has been detected among 1.4% of pregnant women tested, and 19.0% of female prisoners (Lima, 2003;Miranda et al, 2000).…”

Hepatitis B genotype G and high frequency of lamivudine-resistance mutations among human immunodeficiencyvirus/hepatitis B virus co-infected patients in Brazil

“…Among patients co-infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), HBV prevalence in Brazil varies from 1.6-8.5% (Mendes-Correa et al 2000, Monteiro et al 2004, Souza et al 2004, Tovo et al 2006, Zago et al 2007, Portelinha Filho et al 2009). HIV coinfection modifies hepatitis B progression by decreasing the anti-HBV immune response after acute HBV infection, thereby increasing the risk of chronic infection (Benhamou 2007).…”