• Arch Iran Med · Sep 2019

    Prevalence of Hepatitis B and C among Drug-Abusing Male Prisoners in Birjand, South Khorasan, Iran.

    • Shokouh Ghafari, Gholamreza Sharifzadeh, Sanaz Jamali, Behnaz Taji, Seyed Yoosef Javadmoosavi, and Masood Ziaee.
    • Infectious Diseases Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
    • Arch Iran Med. 2019 Sep 1; 22 (9): 501-504.

    BackgroundTo estimate the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) and the associated risk factors among drug-abusing prisoners in Birjand correctional facility.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study on 300 drug-abusing prisoners in 2016. Data were collected through questionnaires and interviews. HBV infection and HCV exposure status of the participants were determined by HBsAg, HBcAb, and HCVAb blood tests using third-generation enzyme immune assays (ELISA). The chi-square test was used to investigate the associations between risk factors and status of HBV infection and HCV exposure. All data were analyzed with SPSS software and P<0.05 was considered as significant difference.ResultsThe mean age of participants was 37.4 ± 9.4 years with a range of 20-78 years. The prevalence rates of HBV exposure (total HBcAb) and infection (HBsAg) were 20.7 and 3.3% respectively, and the prevalence of HCV exposure (HCV Ab) was 8%. No co-infection was observed. Seroprevalence results for injecting drug users (IDUs) was 13 (18.8%) for total HBcAb, 1 (1.4%) for HBsAg, and 13 (18.8%) for HCVAb. There was no significant difference between the IDUs and non-IDUs in terms of HBsAg and total HBcAb positive rate, but the prevalence of HCV was significantly higher in the IDUs (P < 0.001). In logistic regression analysis, the main risk factors for HCV exposure in the entire samples was injecting drug use and having tattoos (OR = 4.08, 95% CI: 1.64-10.17, P = 0.003).ConclusionWe found a high rate of HBV and HCV infection in drug-using prison inmates compared to the general population of this area. The main risk factors associated with HCV infection in the prison populations with history of drug abuse were injecting drug use and having tattoo.© 2019 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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