Viral Hepatitis Co-infection Patterns, Spain | CDC EID

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Volume 17, Number 6–June 2011
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Association of Patients' Geographic Origins with Viral Hepatitis Co-infection Patterns, Spain
Santiago Pérez Cachafeiro, Ana María Caro-Murillo, Juan Berenguer, Ferran Segura, Felix Gutiérrez, Francesc Vidal, Maria Ángeles Martínez-Pérez, Julio Sola, Roberto Muga, Santiago Moreno, and Julia Del Amo, on behalf of Cohort of the Spanish Aids Research Network1
Author affiliations: Fundación IDI Complexo Hospitalario de Pontevedra, Pontevedra, Spain (S. Pérez Cachafeiro); National Centre of Epidemiology Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain (A.M. Caro-Murillo, J. Del Amo); Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañon, Madrid (J. Berenguer); Corporació Sanitària Parc Taulí, Sabadell, Spain (F. Segura); Hospital Universitario de Elche, Elche, Spain (F. Gutiérrez); Hospital Universitari de Tarragona Joan XXIII, Tarragona, Spain (F. Vidal), Hospital Universitario San Cecilio, Granada, Spain (M.Á. Martínez-Pérez), Hospital de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain (J. Sola); Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona, Spain (R. Muga); and Hospital Universitario Ramon y

Suggested citation for this article

Abstract
To determine if hepatitis C virus seropositivity and active hepatitis B virus infection in HIV-positive patients vary with patients' geographic origins, we studied co-infections in HIV-seropositive adults. Active hepatitis B infection was more prevalent in persons from Africa, and hepatitis C seropositivity was more common in persons from eastern Europe.

Since the introduction of highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART), non-AIDS defining conditions have become major causes of illness and death in HIV-infected patients. In particular, liver disease has emerged as a major cause of death in the HAART era (1,2). In HIV-infected patients, chronic liver conditions are mostly caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) (3,4).

Worldwide distribution of both viruses is heterogeneous because of different patterns of transmission (5,6). In addition, HBV immunization programs at birth were implemented in some countries during the 1990s, which has led to a decrease in the proportion of chronic HBV carriers (6). As a consequence of these different patterns of risk and immunization, HCV and HBV prevalence vary across countries and even across regions in the same country (7,8). Several studies have addressed HBV and HCV prevalence in migrants and ethnic minorities (9,10), but few studied viral hepatitis co-infections in HIV-infected persons according to the patients' geographic origins (11,12).

In Spain, as in other high-income countries, migrants from developing countries represent a growing proportion of persons with HIV-infections (13). The question we addressed in our study was whether HCV seropositivity and active HBV infection in HIV-positive patients vary with the patients' geographic origins.

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Viral Hepatitis Co-infection Patterns, Spain | CDC EID



Suggested Citation for this Article
Pérez Cachafeiro S, Caro-Murillo AM, Berenguer J, Segura F, Gutiérrez F, Vidal F. Association of patients' geographic origins with viral hepatitis co-infection patterns, Spain. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2011 Jun [date cited]. http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/17/6/1116.htm


DOI: 10.3201/eid1706.091810



1A complete listing of the members of the Spanish AIDS Research Network is provided in the Technical Appendix [ 24 KB, 3 pages])


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Santiago Pérez Cachafeiro, Metodólogo Fundación IDI-CHOP, Complexo Hospitalario de Pontevedra, Hospital Montecelo Planta (-1), Mourente s/n, 36164 Pontevedra, Spain; email: santiago.perez.cachafeiro@sergas.es