High seroprevalence of Bloodborne Viruses among Street-Recruited Injection Drug Users from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

M. WEISSENBACHER, D. ROSSI, G. RADULICH, S. SOSA-ESTANI, M. VILA, E. VIVAS, M. AVILA, P. CUCHI, J. REY, L. MARTÍNEZ PERALTA.

CLINICAL INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Infectious Diseases Society of America

Lugar: Chicago, EEUU; Año: 2003 vol. 37 p. 348 - 352

1058-4838

Injecting drug use (IDU) is the main mechanism of HIV transmission in Argentina (40 %). This study  was conducted in street-recruited IDUs from the surroundings of Buenos Aires city, with the aim of estimating seroprevalence and coinfection of HIV, Hepatitis B (HBV), Hepatitis C (HCV) and Human T-cell Lymphotropic Viruses (HTLVs). From of a total of 174 volunteers, questionnaires were administered and blood samples were obtained: 137 were men (78.7 %) and 37 were women (21,3 %).  Average age was 30. Only 64 (37%) had no virus infection, whereas 110 (63%) had one or more viruses. The seroprevalence in the IDUs studied was: 44.3% for HIV; 54.6% for HCV; 42.5 % for HBV; 2.3% for HTLV-I and 14.5% for HTLV-II. Out of 110 infected IDUs, 23 had simple infections; 29 had two viruses; 38 had three viruses and 20 had four viruses simultaneously. Among the HIV-infected individuals, only 6.5 % (5/77) were not co-infected with other viruses; 88.3 % (68/77) were co-infected with HCV and 68.8 % (53/77) were co-infected with HVB. We demonstrated the existence of multiple viral infections with a high rate of prevalence in a drug-using population in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is highly imperative to implement preventive strategies as well as to provide health care support in this vulnerable population.