Low prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection among human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected individuals from Slovenia and Croatia

Abstract

The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the population of human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1)-infected individuals from Slovenia and Croatia was determined. One hundred and sixty-six out of a total of 188 Slovenian HIV-1-infected individuals and 120 subjects who were randomly chosen out of a total 342 Croatian HIV-1 antibodies-positive individuals were tested for HCV infection. Detection of HCV antibodies was carried out by a third generation enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) and the positive samples were additionally tested by a third generation immuno-blot assay. Additionally, the presence of HCV RNA was determined in all serum samples by a qualitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Twenty-four (14.5%) out of 166 Slovenian and 18 (15.0%) out of 120 Croatian HIV-1-infected individuals were HCV antibodies-positive. Nineteen out of 24 (79.2%) Slovenian and 13 out of 18 (72.2%) Croatian anti-HCV positive individuals were also viremic. HCV RNA was not detected in any of 244 HCV antibodies-negative/HIV-1-infected individual from both countries. A significant difference in the prevalence of HCV infection between blood (77.8% in Slovenia and 66.7% in Croatia) and sexual exposure risk groups (1.6% in Slovenia and 6.6% in Croatia) was found in both countries. In a study carried out on the highest proportion of entire population of HIV-1-infected individuals from a certain country or geographic region, Slovenia and Croatia were identified as countries with the second and third lowest prevalence of HCV infection among HIV-1/HIV-2 infected individuals worldwide.