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Prevalence of HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C in Patients Participating in the Methadone Maintenance Treatment in Central Taiwan

Wen-Yu Hsu, Jui-Ting Liu,Ting-Gang Chang, Yi-Cheng Liao, Nan-Ying Chiu

Objective: Transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are important issues in heroin addicts. In this study, we investigated the prevalences of HIV, HBV, and HCV infections and analyzed the associations between relative factors in heroin addicts, who were enrolled in the methadone maintenance treatment (MMT), in central Taiwan from January 2007 to February 2011. Method:: This is a retrospect study. We reviewed the medical records of subjects enrolling in the MMT in Changhua Christian Hos- pital, a medical center, and Lu tung Branch of Changhua Christian Hospital, a psychiatric subspecialty hospital, in central Taiwan. Results: We enrolled 1,149 subjects, including 1,012 male subjects (88.1%) and 137 female subjects (11.9%). We found that 232 subjects (20.2%) had HIV, 546 subjects (47.5%) HBsAb-posi- tive, and 335 subjects (29.2%) hepatitis B-positive status. A total of 982 subjects (85.5%) was found to have hepatitis C infection, including 757 non-HIV subjects (82.6%) and 225 HIV carriers (97.0%). We found that there was significant rela- tionship between intravenous injection and HCV-positive status (p< 0.001). Sub- jects with HCV-positive status had significantly higher GOT (p< 0.05), higher GPT (p< 0.001), younger age of heroin first time using (p< 0.001), more absti- nence heroin times (p< 0.001), and longer heroin using duration (p< 0.001). Male (p< 0.05), intravenous injection user (p< 0.001), lower education level (p< 0.05), unemployment status (p< 0.05), and HCV infection were related with HIV-posi- tive status. Subjects with HIV positive status also had significant higher mean of γ-GT (p< 0.05), older age (p< 0.05), times of heroin abstinence (p< 0.05), and heroin using duration (p< 0.001). Conclusion: This population should be closely followed for their infection condition, and receive effective intervention more ear- ly. Further basic or clinical studies for co-infection of HCV and HIV are needed.
Key Word human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), methadone maintence treatment (MMT)
Editorial Committe, Taiwanese Journal of Psychiatry
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