Prevalence of Anti-HCV Seropositivity Among Patients with a History of Injection Drug Use

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a serious public health problem, affecting millions of people worldwide. People who inject drugs (PWIDs) are at high risk of contracting HCV. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HCV seropositivity among patients with evidence of past or current drug use. A total of 7,278 serum samples from 4,049 males and 3,229 females were tested for anti-HCV antibodies at the Laboratory of Virology at the Military Medical Academy – Sofia for a period from Janu¬ary 1, 2023, to April 29, 2024. An automated qualitative LIAISON® XL Murex HCV Ab (DiaSorin, Italy) chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) was used. All patients with a positive HCV serostatus (n=153) were grouped on the basis of their demographic and clinical characteristics, and the relative proportion of the cohort with a history of drug addiction (n=33) was determined. The total HCV seroprevalence among the studied hospital population for the selected study period was 2.1%. The two groups of patients with a positive HCV serostatus (PWIDs and Non-PWIDs) were predominantly male. The age distribution showed that PWIDs were younger than other HCV-seropositive patients (median age 41 vs. 59 years). Coinfections with other blood-borne viruses (HIV, HBV) were more common among PWIDs. The group of patients with a history of drug use showed high HCV seropositivity (21.5%), male predominance and a low proportion of those on antiviral therapy (8 men vs. 64 Non-PWIDs).