Analysis of hepatitis C virus and HIV co-infection

Objective To study the prevalence and distribution of HCV genotypes and the transmission in patients with HIV/HCV co-infection. Methods 52 serum samples were collected from hepatitis C virus and HIV coinfected patients between July 2008 and March 2009 in the Third People' s Hospital of Kunming. HCV genotypes in 28 patients with HCV RNA positive were performed by a reverse hybridization assay, product of the 5' untranslated region (5'UTR) was hybridized with probes from various HCV genotypes. Results Four different genotypes were found in 28 HIV/HCV co-infected samples tested for HCV genotype, and their overall prevalence were 9 cases (32.1%)for type 3b,8 (28.6%) for type 3a, 7 (25.0%) for type 1b, 3 (10.7%) for type 6a, and 1 (3.6%) remained untyped. 23 cases were infected the diseases by intravenous drug, accounted for 82.14%, 5 cases were infected by non-intravenous drug type. Conclusions HCV 3b, 3a, 1b are the major genotypes in patients with HIV/HCV co-infection, and intravenous drug is the main transmission form. Key words: HIV; Hepacivirus; Genotype