TY - JOUR
T1 - Seroepidemiology of hepatitis b virus in a population of injecting drug users
T2 - Association with drug injection patterns
AU - Levine, Orin S.
AU - Vlahov, David
AU - Koehler, Jane
AU - Cohn, Sylvia
AU - Spronk, Adrian M.
AU - Nelson, Kenrad E.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1995/8/1
Y1 - 1995/8/1
N2 - To investigate the epidemiology of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection among injecting drug users, the authors assessed the prevalence of HBV seromarkers among 2,558 injecting drug users recruited through street outreach in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1988-1989. Eighty percent of the drug users had at least one HBV seromarker. HBV seropositivity was associated with increasing age, duration of injecting drug use, African-American ethnicity, injecting drugs at least once daily, and sharing needles or visiting "shooting galleries" during the previous 11 years, but not with high-risk sexual behaviors or a history of sexually transmitted disease. This finding is possibly due to the relative inefficiency of sexual transmission as compared with parenteral transmission in injecting drug users. In addition, HBV seropositivity was strongly associated with seropositivity for hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus. The authors conclude that HBV transmission among injecting drug users occurs primarily through the sharing of contaminated drug injecting equipment rather than through sexual relations, and that efforts to prevent HBV infection must target injecting drug users early in their injecting careers.
AB - To investigate the epidemiology of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection among injecting drug users, the authors assessed the prevalence of HBV seromarkers among 2,558 injecting drug users recruited through street outreach in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1988-1989. Eighty percent of the drug users had at least one HBV seromarker. HBV seropositivity was associated with increasing age, duration of injecting drug use, African-American ethnicity, injecting drugs at least once daily, and sharing needles or visiting "shooting galleries" during the previous 11 years, but not with high-risk sexual behaviors or a history of sexually transmitted disease. This finding is possibly due to the relative inefficiency of sexual transmission as compared with parenteral transmission in injecting drug users. In addition, HBV seropositivity was strongly associated with seropositivity for hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus. The authors conclude that HBV transmission among injecting drug users occurs primarily through the sharing of contaminated drug injecting equipment rather than through sexual relations, and that efforts to prevent HBV infection must target injecting drug users early in their injecting careers.
KW - HIV
KW - Hepatitis B virus
KW - Hepatitis C viruses
KW - Primary prevention
KW - Substance abuse, intravenous
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U2 - 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a117639
DO - 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a117639
M3 - Article
C2 - 7631637
AN - SCOPUS:0029095461
SN - 0002-9262
VL - 142
SP - 331
EP - 341
JO - American journal of epidemiology
JF - American journal of epidemiology
IS - 3
ER -