Hepatitis C virus infection among noninjecting drug users in New York City

Abstract

The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among noninjecting drug users has been reported to be higher than in the general population, but the reasons for this observation remain unclear. Noninjecting drug users aged 15-40 years and who used drugs for no longer than 10 years were enrolled in the study. The participants were interviewed about risk behaviors and had specimens drawn for serological testing. Of 276 enrolled, 4.7% were infected with HCV. Drug users who had ever sniffed or snorted heroin in combination with cocaine were significantly more likely to be infected with HCV compared with those who never sniffed or snorted heroin with cocaine. No other drug use or sexual risk behaviors were found to be associated with HCV infection. These findings suggest that sniffing or snorting heroin with cocaine may explain the increase frequently found in HCV infection among noninjectors, but further studies are necessary.

Hepatitis C virus and human T-lymphotropic virus coinfection: epidemiological, clinical, laboratory and histopathological features

“…Nevertheless, since there is no evidence that such practices add to the risk of HTLV-2 acquisition, and because no information was available about the sharing of instruments for inhalation 21 , we believe that this might be a confounder. Based on reports in the literature that indicate that alcohol consumption is high among intravenous drug users 2 , we suppose that this association may have contributed towards our finding of a higher frequency of alcohol consumption among HCV/HTLV-2 coinfected individuals from our cohort.…”

Non-injection drug use and Hepatitis C Virus: A systematic review

“…We found 28 published reports that met our criteria (Allwright et al, 2000;Baozhang et al, 1997;Broers et al, 1998;Chang et al, 1999;Denis et al, 2000;Feldman et al, 2000;Fuller et al, 2004;Galperim et al, 2004;Garten et al, 2004;Gyarmathy et al, 2002;Harsch et al, 2000;Hershow et al, 1998;Howe et al, 2005;Koblin et al, 2003;Lai et al, 2001;Maayan et al, 1994;Mathei et al, 2005;Njoh et al, 1997;Nyamathi et al, 2002;Quaglio et al 2003a;Quaglio et al 2003b;Santana Rodriguez et al, 1998;Shrestha et al, 1998;Strasfeld et al, 2003;Tortu et al, 2001;Tortu et al, 2004;Van Ameijden et al, 1993;Ward et al, 2000). One report included two separate studies, both of which were included (Tortu et al, 2001) and which appear in Table 1 in two separate rows; two reports were by the same author and indicated the same overall seroprevalence and sample size, therefore we counted this as one study (Quaglio et al 2003a(Quaglio et al & 2003b.…”

“…There was overlap between study samples in some cases, (Tortu et al, 2001;Tortu et al, 2004) and (Fuller et al, 2004;Howe et al, 2005;Koblin et al, 2003). For calculations of median HCV prevalence, we used the study with the largest NIDU sample (Howe et al, 2005;Tortu et al, 2001) and chose not to include the three others (Fuller et al, 2004;Koblin et al, 2003;Tortu et al, 2004) in order to avoid double counting overlapping samples.…”

“…For calculations of median HCV prevalence, we used the study with the largest NIDU sample (Howe et al, 2005;Tortu et al, 2001) and chose not to include the three others (Fuller et al, 2004;Koblin et al, 2003;Tortu et al, 2004) in order to avoid double counting overlapping samples. We have included all the published studies in Tables 1 and 3 and have included all studies with relevant risk factors in Table 2.…”

Hepatitis C Virus Infection Among Homeless Men Referred From a Community Clinic

“…Although injection drug use (IDU) accounts for at least 60% of all chronic and new HCV infections annually (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2000), research is advancing theories regarding additional risk factors, some of which are controversial. These disputed HCV factors include the use of noninjection drugs, including inhaled crack and methamphetamine (Fuller et al, 2004;Koblin, Factor, Wu, & Vlahov, 2003;Rosenblum, Nuttbrock, McQuistion, Magura, & Joseph, 2001;Tortu, Neaigus, McMahon, & Hagen, 2001), the use of other gateway-type drugs such as marijuana or alcohol (Nyamathi, Dixon, et al, 2002;Rosman et al, 1996), sharing drug preparation equipment (Hagan et al, 2001), tattooing (Haley & Fischer, 2001Silverman et al, 2000), and sexual transmission (Estrada, 2002;Hershow, Kalish, Sha, Till, & Cohen, 1998;Leruez-Ville, Kunstmann, De Almeida, Rouzioux, & Chaix, 2000;Marincovich et al, 2003). Homeless persons are particularly at risk for HCV, with prevalence rates ranging from 17% to 45% 476 Western Journal of Nursing Research nated the efforts of the statistical support staff in setting up the database and conducting the data analysis.…”