Viral hepatitis (A, B and C) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) co-infection Seroprevlance in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Saudi Arabia

Background/Objectives : Viral hepatitis is still causing a great undesirable impact on the health systems worldwide as a major etiological agent of liver diseases and chronic evolution affecting millions of people, especially among HIV-infected patients. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of viral hepatitis among HIV-infected patients in a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia. Material/methods : Retrospective study was conducted among all of HIV seropositive patients in King Abdulaziz Medical City-Riyadh from January 2005 to November 2015, data was collected and recorded form patients’ charts, electronic health record system and HIV data base for age, gender, nationality, CD4 count, hepatitis A virus (HAV) serology, hepatitis B virus (HBV) serology and hepatitis C virus (HCV) serology. Results : A total of 22/61 patients out of 61 HIV infected patients involved in this study were positive for hepatitis (A,B and C) serology (36.1%),15/61 patients were positive for HBV serology (24.6%), 3/61 patients were positive for HCV serology (4.9%) and 8/61 patients were positive for HAV serology (13.1%). 7/61 patients were positive for HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) (11.5%), 8/61 patients were positive for HBV surface and core antibodies with negative HBsAg (13.1%), 1/61 patient was positive for HBV/HCV serology (1.6%) and 3/61 patients were positive for HAV/HBV serology (4.9%). Conclusions : One third of our HIV positive patients were found to be suffering from viral hepatitis, this significant prevalence in HIV infected patients in SA would encourage health care workers to do a routine surveillance for viral hepatitis in all new HIV positive cases.