Prevalence of hepatitis C infection in HIV-seropositive individuals in and around Belgaum, south India

Abstract

India has high prevalence of HIV infection. As HIV and HCV share common routes of transmission, there is every chance of an HIV-infected patient also having HCV infection. We investigated the prevalence of HCV infection in HIV seropositive individuals attending a tertiary care hospital at Belgaum, south India. A total of 16,124 serum samples from suspected patients were screened for the presence of HIV antibodies and those who tested positive for HIV were screened for HCV antibodies by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). A total of 24 (3.52%) patients were found to be co-infected with HIV and HCV. Among them, 16 (66.66%) were male and 8 (33.33%) were female. This study has revealed a relatively high prevalence of HIV/ HCV co-infection in and around Belgaum which suggests preventive and control measures should be taken against the spread of such infection in this part of India.