Prevalence of GB virus type C in urban Americans infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1

Stephen M Smith,George Perez,Lavanya Jitendranath,Jihad Slim,James P Fallon,Diana Finkel,Michael J Donio,Natalia Chkrebtii,Mahender Singh

doi:10.1186/1742-4690-2-38

Stephen M Smith, George Perez + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4690-2-38

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Abstract

GBV-C virus infection has been linked to improved clinical outcome in HIV-1 co-infected individuals. The epidemiology of GBV-C has, thus far, been limited to the gay male, HIV+ population. Here we describe the prevalence of antibodies against GBV-C envelope glycoprotein E2 and GBV-C viremia in an HIV+ inner city population. This study group is predominantly African-American; 41% of the participants are women. The major risk factor for HIV infection is intravenous drug use. Overall, 56% of the study population had evidence of current or past infection with GBV-C. GBV-C exposure was not associated with hepatitis C virus infection. The group of participants, who had GBV-C viremia and anti-E2 antibodies, had high percentage of patients with an undetectable HIV-1 viral load. These data provide increased insight into the prevalence of GBV-C co-infection in the HIV epidemic in this understudied population.

Highlights

In 1995, several groups independently reported the discovery of two new viruses, which were termed GB virus type C (GBV-C) and hepatitis G virus, respectively
This report is the first to describe the prevalence of GBV-C in an inner city population comprised predominantly of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected African-Americans
Analysis of HIV-1 risk factors did not reveal a significant correlation between specific high-risk behavior for HIV-1 and GBV-C exposure

Summary

Background

In 1995, several groups independently reported the discovery of two new viruses, which were termed GB virus type C (GBV-C) and hepatitis G virus, respectively (review in [1]). GBV-C prevalence is known to be significantly higher in HIV-1 seropositive individuals (>75%) [3,5,6,13] compared with healthy blood donors (10–20%) [14]. In most cases, this observation is based on evaluation of patient groups comprised primarily of men, who have sex with men (MSM). We evaluated the prevalence of GBV-C infection in a population consisting primarily of HIV-infected, urban African-Americans

Methods

Results

Conclusion

14. Stapleton JT