Hepatitis C virus infection in Guinea-Bissau: a sexually transmitted genotype 2 with parenteral amplification?

Background: Sub-Saharan Africa is the continent with the highest prevalence of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Genotype 2 HCV is thought to have originated from West Africa several hundred years ago. Mechanisms of transmission remain poorly understood.

Parenteral transmission during excision and treatment of tuberculosis and trypanosomiasis may be responsible for the HIV-2 epidemic in Guinea-Bissau.

Background And Objective: The factors that led to the simultaneous emergence, decades ago, of HIV-1 in central Africa and HIV-2 in West Africa remain unclear. The low HIV-2-associated mortality enables epidemiological assessment of risk factors potentially relevant in the early stages of the epidemic. In Guinea-Bissau, its epicentre, HIV-2 became highly prevalent (approximately 15%) in cohorts of individuals born before 1962, but is now disappearing whereas HIV-1 prevalence is increasing.