PREVALENCE OF ANTIBODY TO HEPATITIS-C VIRUS (HCV) IN HIV-1-INFECTED PATIENTS (NICE SEROCO COHORT)

The prevalence of antibody to hepatitis C virus (HCV) in a cohort of 2 72 HIV-infected patients was assessed by means of 4 anti-HCV assays: a Ist generation and a neutralization test, a 2nd generation test, and a confirmatory test, the dot-blot Matrix HCV(TM) immunoassay. The coho rt included, as a single risk factor, 35.7% intravenous drug users (IV DUs), 25% homosexual men, 30.1% heterosexual individuals, 5.9% transfu sed patients, 0.7% occupational infections, and 2.6% patients with unk nown infection source, and was studied on entry and in samples collect ed for up to 36 months. Results showed that on entry (i) sera of 83 ou t of 272 members of the cohort were positive by the HCV Ist generation EIA (30.5%); 70 were confirmed by the neutralization test (84.3%); (i i) 115 of the cohort were reactive with the 2nd generation HCV EIA (41 .3%); (iii)with the dot-blot immunoassay 99 (86.1%) of the cohort were confirmed and 16 remained indeterminate. The overall confirmed HCV an tibody-positive rate in these 272 patients was 36.4%. Antibody to HCV was detected in 78.3% of IVDUs, 18.3% of heterosexual individuals, 31. 2% of transfused patients, and only 2.9% of homosexual men. The 36-mon th follow-up of this cohort revealed that 4/145 patients became anti-H CV positive by second generation assay. Hepatitis B markers were frequ ently associated with HCV in IVDUs (71.1%) but infrequently in heteros exual (8.5%)or homosexual (1.5%) individuals. Our results suggest that HCV 2nd generation EIA used in combination with the semiautomated dot -blot assay as a confirmatory test improves the specificity and sensit ivity for HCV antibody detection. Homosexual males are at low risk of HCV infection among HIV risk groups,