HCV and HIV Infection, and Coinfection in the León Health Area in the Period 1993-2004)

Abstract

Background: As few population studies exist, the study of positive serological tests detected in laboratory services may be an acceptable approximation for the assessment of HIV and Hepatitis C infection and coinfection by both. Methods: A study was made of the database of positive serologies of the Laboratory Service of León General Hospital. Data were treated in accordance with the origin of the samples. To calculate rates, the municipal census of persons over 14 was used. For the prison population, the number of inmates on the last day of each year was considered. The period analysed was 1993-2004. The Chi-square test and Chi-square test for tendencies were used. Results: The number of positive serologies for HCV, HIV and coinfection were 467, 112 and 78 in 1993; 217, 24 and 15 in 2002, and 294, 42 and 21 in 2004. According to the samples from the hospital, blood bank and health centres, the average annual rate per 100,000 inhabitants for the three-year periods 1993-95 and 2001-04 in men varied from 153.3 to 69.5 for HCV, from 26.2 to 10,0 for HIV and from 21.7 to 3.8 for coinfection. The figures for women were 56.6-37.7 for HCV, 9.2-2.3 for HIV and 6.3-0.4 for coinfection. In all cases, there was a significant downward trend (P<0.05). The positive serologies from the prison for the period 1993-2004 varied between 34.5% and 7.2% for HCV, 11.7%-1.1% for HIV and 9.55 and 1.0% for coinfection. Of those infected by HCV, 11.5% were HIV positive, and of those infected by HIV, 65.5% were also positive for HCV. Conclusions: A drop was observed in the number and rates of positive serological tests over the period studied.