Seroprevalence of hepatitis C virus among people living with HIV/AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean: a systematic review.

Fatima Mitiko Tengan,Caroline Manchiero,Wanderley Marques Bernardo,Karim Yakub Ibrahim,Mariana Cavalheiro Magri,Bianca Peixoto Dantas

doi:10.1186/s12879-016-1988-y

Abstract

BackgroundStudies have shown that the immunosuppression induced by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) accelerates the natural history of liver disease associated with hepatitis C virus (HCV), with 3- to 5-fold higher odds of coinfected individuals developing cirrhosis. However, estimates of the seroprevalence of hepatitis C among people living with HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) (PLHA) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are widely variable.MethodsWe performed a systematic review to estimate the seroprevalence of HCV among PLHA. We searched studies on HIV and HCV infections in LAC included in the PubMed, LILACS and Embase databases in December of 2014 with no time or language restrictions. The following combinations of search terms were used in the PubMed and Embase databases: (HIV OR Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Virus OR AIDS OR HTLV OR Human Immunodeficiency Virus OR Human T Cell) AND (HCV OR HEPATITIS C OR HEPATITIS C VIRUS OR HEPACIVIRUS) AND (name of an individual country or territory in LAC). The following search terms were used in the LILACS database: (HIV OR AIDS OR Virus da Imunodeficiencia Humana) AND (HCV OR Hepatite C OR Hepacivirus). An additional 11 studies were identified through manual searches. A total of 2,380 publications were located, including 617 duplicates; the remaining articles were reviewed to select studies for inclusion in this study.ResultsA total of 37 studies were selected for systematic review, including 23 from Brazil, 5 from Argentina, 3 from Cuba, 1 from Puerto Rico, 1 from Chile, 1 from Colombia, 1 from Mexico, 1 from Peru and 1 from Venezuela. The estimated seroprevalence of HCV infection varied from 0.8 to 58.5 % (mean 17.37; median 10.91), with the highest in Argentina and Brazil and the lowest in Venezuela and Colombia.ConclusionsInvestigation of HCV infection among PLHA and of HIV infection among people living with HCV is highly recommended because it allows for better follow up, counseling and treatment of HIV/HCV-coinfected patients. Future studies with larger sample sizes are needed in both South and Central America to understand and address the risk factors associated with the acquisition of infection.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12879-016-1988-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

Studies have shown that the immunosuppression induced by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) accelerates the natural history of liver disease associated with hepatitis C virus (HCV), with 3- to 5-fold higher odds of coinfected individuals developing cirrhosis
Search strategies We searched all studies on HIV and HCV infection in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) included in the PubMed, LILACS (Literatura LatinoAmericana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde/Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature) and Embase databases in December of 2014 with no time or language restrictions
Among these 37 studies on the seroprevalence of HCV infection among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50], 23 studies were conducted in Brazil, 5 in Argentina, 3 in Cuba, 1 in Puerto Rico, 1 in Chile, 1 in Colombia, 1 in Mexico, 1 in Peru and 1 in Venezuela (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Studies have shown that the immunosuppression induced by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) accelerates the natural history of liver disease associated with hepatitis C virus (HCV), with 3- to 5-fold higher odds of coinfected individuals developing cirrhosis. 2.2 to 3.0 % of the world’s population (130–170 million people) is infected with the hepatitis C virus C (HCV), and approximately 36.7 million people live with human immunodeficiency virus infection/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) [1, 2]. HIV/HCV-coinfected individuals do not seem to have an increased risk of AIDS, kidney disease or heart disease, their odds of developing cirrhosis are higher [3]. Other studies [6, 7] found that HIV-induced immunosuppression accelerated the natural history of HCV-related liver disease and that the odds of coinfected patients developing cirrhosis were 3- to 5-fold higher

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