Low Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus Infection Among HIV-Positive Patients: Data From a Large-Scale Cohort Study in Istanbul, Turkey

Background: rate of coinfection with human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) and hepatitis c virus (hcv) varies in different countries. this may be attributable to common transmission routes as well as social, economic and cultural factors. objectives: the purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of hcv infection among hiv-positive patients in istanbul, turkey. patients and methods: since january 2006 to november 2013, 949 hiv-positive patients that were enrolled in this study by acthiv-ist (action against hiv in istanbul) study group, which consists of five centers to follow up hiv-positive patients in istanbul. epidemiologic and clinical data were collected retrospectively from medical records and were transferred to an hiv database system.results: among 949 patients, 84% were men and the mean age was 37.92 ± 11.54 years (range, 17-79). the most frequent route of transmission was heterosexual intercourse (48.8%), followed by men having sex with men (30.5%). only nine patients (0.9%) had history of injection drug use (idu). the prevalence of hiv/hcv coinfection was 0.9% (9:949). the idu rate was 44.4% (4:9) in patients with hiv/hcv coinfection (three of them were not turkish citizens), whereas this rate was only 0.6% (5:881) in patients with only hiv infection (p < 0.01). genotypes 1b, 2a/2c, and 3 were determined in five, one, and two patients, respectively. genotype could not be determined in one patient. history of residence in a foreign country (p < 0.01) and imprisonment (p < 0.01) were also considered as risk factors in terms of hiv/hcv coinfection. conclusions: prevalence of hiv/hcv coinfection is considerably low in turkey. the extremely rare prevalence of idu might have a role in this low prevalence.