Spontaneous viral clearance, viral load, and genotype distribution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in HIV-infected patients with anti-HCV antibodies in Europe.

Background: Variables influencing serum hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA levels and genotype distribution in individuals with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are not well known, nor are factors determining spontaneous clearance after exposure to HCV in this population.

Methods: All HCV antibody (Ab)-positive patients with HIV infection in the EuroSIDA cohort who had stored samples were tested for serum HCV RNA, and HCV genotyping was done for subjects with viremia. Logistic regression was used to identify variables associated with spontaneous HCV clearance and HCV genotype 1.

Characteristics of Vilnius street prostitutes.

Women prostituting in Vilnius City, Lithuania, were studied with regard to their socioeconomic background, drug and alcohol abuse, conditions for prostituting and for the carrier rate of sexually transmitted infectious agents. The 73 women studied represented a group of low-socioeconomic prostitutes with a great age span, i.e.

HIV infection and sexually transmitted infections in Lithuania.

Lithuania is a small country with a population of 3.7 million. It has recently been released from the yoke of Soviet rule.

HIV-1 genetic subtype A/B recombinant strain causing an explosive epidemic in injecting drug users in Kaliningrad.

Objectives: To investigate the molecular epidemiology and genetic structure of the virus strain(s) causing an outbreak of HIV-1 infection in the Kaliningrad province of the Russian Federation and to investigate the relationship of this outbreak to some other emerging HIV-1 epidemics in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Design: A molecular epidemiological investigation was conducted in the city of Kaliningrad amongst individuals recently diagnosed as HIV-1-positive. Samples were also collected from neighbouring Lithuania and from the Ukraine.

[Studies of AIDS in Lithuania].

The seroepidemiological survey of 400,000 persons aged 20-40 years and belonging to different AIDS risk groups, as well as blood donors, for the presence of antibodies to HIV has been carried out on the territory of Lithuania. This investigation has been made with the use of the assay systems "Antigen", "Peptoscreen" and "Vector" manufactured in the USSR, as well as commercial assay systems from foreign manufacturers, such as Du Pont de Nemours Inc., Organon N.