HIV and Infections of Similar Transmission Patterns in a Drug Injectors Community of Santos, Brazil

Abstract

To study the prevalence of HIV and infections with related transmission patterns, we interviewed and obtained blood samples from 220 injecting drug users (IDUs), sampled by snowballing, from the city of Santos in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, where the estimated number of IDUs (10,000) comprises approximately 2% of the entire population. Seroprevalence of HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphilis, and HTLV (1 and 2) was assessed and compared with that in 197 blood donors from the same city, matched for age and gender. Risk behavior related to HIV was assessed by a standard questionnaire applied to the IDU sample. Univariate and multivariate analyses of the risk factors were performed. Seroprevalences found were 62% for HIV, 75% for HCV, 75% for HBV, 34% for syphilis, and 25% for HTLV (1 and 2) among IDUs, which compare with 0.0%, 2%, 23%, 12%, and 1% for blood donors, respectively. The risk for parenterally transmitted infections in this IDU community was higher than that for sexually transmitted infections (odds ratio for syphilis, 3.57; hepatitis B, 10.0; and hepatitis C, 100). The results of the mutivariate risk analysis showed that daily rate of ID use >5 times/day (OR = 6.73), not changing behavior to avoid AIDS (OR= 3.28), ID use >15 days/month (OR = 2.72), and ID use in the last 2 months (OR = 2.23) were the risk behaviors significantly associated with HIV infection.

Correlation between HIV and HCV in Brazilian prisoners: evidence for parenteral transmission inside prison

“…3,20 In addition, it was already tested the suitability of such markers as surrogates of the HIV route of transmission. 2,11,22 As pointed before, the use of mathematical techniques to estimate incidence rates from crosssectional prevalence data has already proved to be reliable enough for epidemiological purposes. 1,9 They can also be used to provide good estimations of the intensity of HIV transmission based upon information collected through risk behavior questionnaires.…”

“…To circumvent such limitations, hepatitis C and syphilis seroprevalence were used in this study as surrogates 2,11,18 of parenteral and sexual transmission of HIV, respectively, besides the classical questionnaires of risky behavior.…”

Human Immunodeficiency Virus Seroprevalence among Inmates of the Penitentiary Complex of the Region of Campinas, State of São Paulo, Brazil

“…Most works including high number of prisoners were carried out in Scotland (Bird et al 1995), and United States of America (Hoxie et al 1990, Vlahov et al 1991 showing, with slight differences, that the frequencies of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive reactions were higher among prisoners than in the normal population, excluding those groups, which are under risk factors pressures (Stark et al 1995, Carvalho et al 1996, Zapiola et al 1996.…”

“…Taking into consideration several risk factors to which male inmates are exposed nowadays (Benezech et al 1987, Ferrante et al 1987, Carbajal et al 1991, Bird et al 1995, Calzavara et al 1995, Stark et al 1995, Carvalho et al 1996, the main objectives of this study were: (1) to determine the prevalence of HIV antibodies among sera from 693 inmates of the Penitentiary Complex of Campinas, SP, Brazil, from January to August 1995, as detected by an immunoenzymatic assay and the Western blotting, using a cross-sectional design; (2) to compare the influence of the penitentiary system policy, maximum-security (A and B) or minimumsecurity (C) on the infection rates and (3) to verify whether serological conversion has occurred among the inmates within the study period, as well as, if age range could affect HIV infection.…”

Risk Factors for Human T Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type I among Injecting Drug Users in Northeast Brazil: Possibly Greater Efficiency of Male to Female Transmission

“…A national survey with samples from blood banks reported the highest rate of 1.35% in Salvador, the capital of the State of Bahia, a city located in the Northeast region (Ferreira Jr et al 1994, Galvão-Castro et al 1997. Furthermore, other studies demonstrated the presence of these infections among selected groups in Brazil (Araujo et al 1994, de Carvalho et al 1996, Bellei et al 1996. A seroprevalence study of retrovirus infection conducted in Salvador among IDUs, demonstrated high rates of HIV-1 (49.5%), HTLV-I (25.5%) and HTLV-II (8.8%) .…”