شيوع سرمي ويروس هپاتيت G بيماران HIV مثبت آلوده شده از راه تزريقي و جنسي

Prevalence of Hepatitis G Virus in the Sera of HIV Infected Patients with Parenteral and Sexual Exposure

Background and objective: Hepatitis G virus (HGV) is transmitted predominantly through parenteral routes, although sexual transmission has also been reported. Due to controversies regarding HGV transmission routes, we aimed to compare the prevalence of HGV infection in two groups of HIV-positive patients including injection drug users (IDUs) and those with sexual risk of exposure. Materials and methods: Presence of HGV-RNA was analyzed in serum samples from 82 HIV-infected patients including 52 IDUs and 30 cases with sexual risk of exposure by reverse transcriptase-nested polymerase chain reaction. HBsAg, anti-HBs, anti-HCV, HIV viral load and CD4 cells count were also tested in all subjects. Results: The overall prevalence of HGV infection was 10.97% with no statistically significant difference between two groups (13.5% among IDUs vs. 6.7% among the sexual cases). There was not any statistically significant difference between IDUs and sexual group regarding age, viral load, CD4 cells count and the prevalence of HBV infection but there was significant difference between these 2 groups regarding sex and HCV infection. Conclusion: The overall prevalence of HGV infection was relatively high in HIV infected patients and HGV-RNA was found more frequently in patients with injection drug use than those with sexual risk of exposure.