Association of HCV and Treponema pallidum infection in HIV infected northeastern Thai male blood donors
Barusrux, S.; Urwijitaroon, Y.; Puapairoj, C.; Romphruk, A.; Sriwanitchrak, P.
Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand 80 Suppl. 1: S106-S111
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0125-2208 PMID: 9347656 Document Number: 234
This study was performed to determine the association of seroprevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and Treponema pallidum infection among HIV-infected first-time male blood donors (HIV group) in comparison with HIV-seronegative blood donors (control group) in northeastern Thailand (NET). Serum samples were collected from 10,321 first-time voluntary male blood donors. All samples were screened for anti-HIV and anti-HCV by particle agglutination test and for syphilis antibody by RPR. The anti-HIV-positive sera were submitted to EIA and confirmed by Western blot. The reactive anti-HCV samples were confirmed by EIA, whereas reactive syphilis antibody samples were confirmed by T. pallidum particle agglutination (TPPA) test. Fisher's exact test was used for statistical analysis. The prevalence of anti-HIV in first-time male donors was 0.70% (72/10,321). The age range of HIV group and control group donors was 17-50 years. The prevalence of HIV infection among the 21-40 age group was significantly higher than among the 17-20 age group (p = 0.00003). The 17-20 year old HIV group donors showed significantly higher seroprevalence of TPPA (p = 0.003). The 21-30 year old HIV group donors had significantly higher seroprevalence of anti-HCV (p = 0.0008) and TPPA (p = 0.045), but the seroprevalences of anti-HCV and TPPA among the 31-50 age group were nonsignificantly different (p 0.05). Concurrence of anti-HCV and TPPA in HIV groups was not found. This result indicates that HIV infection among NET voluntary male blood donors was significantly associated with T. pallidum infection in young adults and with HCV infection in mature adults.