Yafteh

Background: Because of predisposing risk factors, prevalence of HIV & HCV in different countries has been reported with different percentages. Co infection of HIV & HCV in patients could have additional effects on infection process, persistence and prevalence rate. The purpose of this study was assessing prevalence rate of these infections especially co infection of HIV and HCV in patients.

Materials and Methods: This descriptive and cross sectional study, was carried out on suspected patients of HIV and HCV referred to Khorramabad Shohadaye Ashayer hospital, in 2007. Patients’ serums were evaluated by ELISA for the presence of specific Antibodies. Collected data was analyzed using SPSS software. Fishers exact test with 5% error intervals was used for correlation of sex and infections rate.

Results: 304 and 116 of cases were men and women respectively. Results of the study indicate that 45(10.7%) of the cases were HIV positive (10% men and 0.7 % women) and 115 (24.8%) cases were HCV positive (20.3% men and 4.5% women).

Co infection rate for HIV and HCV was 8.1 % out of 420 total cases. 75.6 % of HIV positive cases were co infected with HCV. Co infection of HIV with HCV was significantly correlated. (p <0.001)

Conclusion: Because of high prevalence of HCV co infection in HIV patients its likely that HIV positive individuals have greatest risk of acquiring HCV infection and vice versa. Co infection rate of HIV & HCV in our country may be higher than other countries.