Hepatitis C seroprevalence and correlation between viral load and viral genotype among primary care clients in Mexico.

Objective: To measure hepatitis C virus (HCV) sero-prevalence, prevalence, hepatitis risk characteristics frequency, and genotype correlation with viral load among clients attending health care clinics.

Material And Methods: Venous blood samples from l12 226 consecutive consenting adults were collected from January 2006 through December 2009. HCV antibodies were detected by immunoassay. HCV RNA was detected by qRT-PCR and viral genotype was performed by PCR and LIPA test.

Results: The HCV seroprevalence observed was l.5 % (C.I. 95% l.3-l.7), from seropositive individuals 60.9 % reported previous blood transfusion, 28.3% declared to have relatives with cirrhosis, 25.2% had tattoos or piercings, and 6.9% referred to have used drugs. Male gender and transfusion (p<0.001) were the most frequent hepatitis risk characteristics in the HCV seropositive group. Among seropositive subjects 48.3% presented HCV RNA.The most frequent genotype detected in all geographic areas of Mexico was l (subtype lA, 33%; subtype lB, 21.4%) followed by genotype 2 (subtype 2A, 8.50%). Subjects with genotype 1 had a significant correlation with the highest viral load.

Conclusions: Our results show that nearly half of seropositive individuals are chronically infected. HCV infection has been shown in this study to be an emerging health problem in Mexico.