Prevalence of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C Infections in HIV Infected Patients Attending a Tertiary Care Hospital in North-East India

Aims: To study the co infection of Hepatitis B (HBV) and/or Hepatitis C virus (HCV) in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infected patients attending tertiary care teaching hospital in North East India.

Study Design: This study was a cross sectional study.

Place and Duration of the Study: Department of Microbiology, Guwahati Medical College & Hospital, Guwahati, Assam, India for a period of one year (August 2010- July 2011)

Methodology: Serum samples of 180 HIV positive patients were collected randomly who gave consent to participate in the study and were tested for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-HCV antibodies by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. The retrospective demographic data of the subjects were collected.

Results: Out of 180 HIV positive patients (126 males and 54 females), 22 (12.2%) cases were HBsAg positive and 8 (4.4%) were anti-HCV positive. Triple infection with HBV, HCV and HIV was not found in any patient. The commonest mode of transmission for HIV alone (113/180; 75.3%) and HIV-HBV co infection (18/22; 81.8%) was sexual route, and for HIV-HCV co infected patients, Intravenous Drug Use (IDU) was the commonest route of transmission (4/8; 50%). Concomitant infection of HIV and HBV was found to be significantly more in the symptomatic group (59.1%) compared to asymptomatic group (4.5%) (P value < 0.001). CD4+ T-lymphocyte count less than 200/μl was seen in 11 of 30 co-infected cases (36.7%).

Conclusion: Co infection with HBV and HCV is a common problem in HIV infected patients in India. Hence, all HIV patients need to be routinely screened for markers such as HbsAg for hepatitis B and Anti HCV for HCV infection so as to take early treatment initiative to prevent the morbidities.