Tracking the entry routes of hepatitis C virus as a surrogate of HIV in an HIV-low prevalence country, the Philippines.

From 2002 to 2007, 1,590 individuals were enrolled in an active surveillance program conducted in Metro Cebu, Philippines, where the anti-HCV-positive rate was significantly and constantly high among injecting drug users (83%, 793/960; 71-88%), especially among those living in downtown (89%, 683/770; 87-100%), despite the extremely low percentage of anti-HIV-positives (0.34%, 3/874). Sampling areas were then enlarged nationwide and the number of samples increased to 2,645 at the end of 2007.

A natural inter-genotypic (2b/1b) recombinant of hepatitis C virus in the Philippines.

The prevalence study and the characterization of hepatitis C virus (HCV) was carried out in the Philippines and the sequence determination of the 5'-untranslated region (5'-UTR)-Core and the NS5B regions of HCV was carried out in this study. An HCV strain (SE-03-07-1689) collected in Metro Manila, Philippines, belonged to discordant subtypes, 2b and 1b in 5'-UTR-Core and NS5B regions, respectively. The 9.

Rapid spread of hepatitis C virus among injecting-drug users in the Philippines: Implications for HIV epidemics.

From the trends of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemics in South and Southeast Asia, it was postulated that an HIV epidemic would start as a blood-borne infection among injecting-drug users in the Philippines. In 2002, 560 individuals were recruited in Metro Cebu, Philippines and tested for HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections. The seroprevalence of anti-HCV among injecting-drug users (70.