Document 0243
 DOCN  M95B0243
 TI    Seroepidemiology of hepatitis B virus in a population of injecting drug
       users. Association with drug injection patterns.
 DT    9511
 AU    Levine OS; Vlahov D; Koehler J; Cohn S; Spronk AM; Nelson KE; Department
       of Epidemiology, School of Hygiene and Public Health,; The Johns Hopkins
       University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
 SO    Am J Epidemiol. 1995 Aug 1;142(3):331-41. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE
       MED/95358152
 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.
 DE    Adult  Baltimore/EPIDEMIOLOGY  Female  Hepatitis
       B/DIAGNOSIS/*EPIDEMIOLOGY/TRANSMISSION  Hepatitis B Antibodies/BLOOD
       Hepatitis B Antigens/BLOOD/IMMUNOLOGY  Hepatitis C Viruses/ISOLATION &
       PURIF  Human  Male  Middle Age  Prevalence  Risk Factors
       Seroepidemiologic Methods  Sex Factors  Substance Abuse,
       Intravenous/*EPIDEMIOLOGY  Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.  JOURNAL ARTICLE

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
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