Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus Infection, Genotypes and Subtypes in Migrants from Pakistan in Barcelona, Spain
Dopico, Eva (Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge)
Rodríguez Frías, Francisco (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Bioquímica i de Biologia Molecular)
Ubillos, Itziar (Institut Català de la Salut)
Rando-Segura, Ariadna (Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron. Institut de Recerca)
Garcia-Cehic, D (Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron. Institut de Recerca)
Gregori i Font, Josep (Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron. Institut de Recerca)
Rando-Matos, Yolanda (Institut Universitari d'Investigació en Atenció Primària Jordi Gol)
Solsona, Luis (Institut Universitari d'Investigació en Atenció Primària Jordi Gol)
Niubó, Jordi (Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge)
Esteban Mur, Juan Ignacio (Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron. Institut de Recerca)
Costa, Josep (Hospital Clínic i Provincial de Barcelona)
Martínez, Miguel J. (Hospital Clínic i Provincial de Barcelona)
Quer, Josep 1963- (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Bioquímica i de Biologia Molecular)

Data:	2022
Resum:	Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic liver infection with 71 million people infected worldwide. Pakistan has the second highest prevalence of HCV infection and more than half (52%) of Pakistani living in Spain reside in Barcelona. The aim of this study was to analyse the seroprevalence and viraemic rate and determine the genotypes and subtypes of HCV among Pakistanis living in the southern metropolitan area of Barcelona. We included all Pakistani patients seeking primary healthcare in the southern metropolitan area of Barcelona from August 2011 to July 2014. Serum samples were screened for HCV antibodies. HCV viral load was determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and genotypes and subtypes were performed using Versant HCV Genotype and/or deep-sequencing. Screening for hepatitis B virus (HBV) was also carried out. Among 5877 Pakistani patients, 565 (9. 61%) were screened for anti-HCV antibodies, with 68 (12. 04%) being positive. The viral load was determined in 65, with 31 presenting active infection and the viraemic rate was 47. 69% (95% confidence interval 36. 02-59. 62). HCV genotyping and subtyping were performed in 24 individuals. Most infections corresponded to HCV genotype 3 (91. 67%), and high resolution HCV subtyping was performed in 18 samples, 16 of which presented subtype 3a. One subject presented HBV coinfection with undetectable HBV DNA. During the study period, we identified a possible case of HCV vertical transmission followed by spontaneous viraemia clearance in a chronically infected mother with a C/T IL28B genetic polymorphism. These results suggest that general HCV screening protocols in patients from high prevalence countries, such as Pakistan, would be helpful to identify and treat active HCV infections. This could avoid further transmission and contribute to building targeted health policies for micro-elimination of HCV infection in specific communities.
Ajuts:	Instituto de Salud Carlos III PI19/00301 Instituto de Salud Carlos III PI19/00533
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	Hepatitis C virus ; Migrants ; HCV genotype ; HCV subtype
Publicat a:	Infection and drug resistance, Vol. 15 (august 2022) , p. 4637-4644, ISSN 1178-6973

DOI: 10.2147/IDR.S367715
PMID: 36003985

8 p, 1.4 MB

El registre apareix a les col·leccions:
Articles > Articles de recerca
Articles > Articles publicats