Seroprevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) antibody and HCV-related risk in injecting drug users in northern India: comparison with non-injecting drug users.

Aim: The current study was designed to study seroprevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) antibody in injecting drug users (IDUs) and non-injecting drug users (non-IDUs) with or without other HCV-related risk behaviour.

Materials And Methods: Serum of male inpatients of the three groups in a tertiary-care hospital in north India was screened for anti-HCV antibody by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for two years. The presence of risk behaviours or risk exposure (sharing needle or other drug-related paraphernalia, multiple sex partners, unprotected sex with commercial sex workers/strangers, and blood transfusion) was assessed with the risk questionnaire.

Results: One-hundred and three IDUs (n=103), non-IDUs with other HCV-related risk (n=124) and non-IDUs without other HCV-related risk (n=245) were screened (mean age 31.2 (SD=7.92), 32.6 (SD=9.98) and 36.9 (SD=10.63) years, respectively). Almost 46% of the IDUs, 8.1% among the non-IDUs with HCV-related risk and 3.7% among the non-IDUs without HCV-related risk were seropositive for anti-HCV antibody (p<0.001). A majority of the IDUs have been actively using the drugs (76.7%) for a mean duration of 60.9months (SD=57.05) and a majority used injection buprenorphine in combination with promethazine and/or diazepam (70.9%). Other HCV-related risk behaviours were significantly more common among non-IDUs with other HCV-related risk behaviour.

Conclusion: Seroprevalence of anti-HCV antibody is high in IDUs compared to non-IDUs, and it is primarily related to injecting risk behaviour.