Who is likely to have HIV-HCV coinfection?
Advertisement The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is transmitted primarily by large or repeated direct percutaneous (i.e., passage through the skin by puncture) exposures to contaminated blood. Therefore, coinfection with HIV and HCV is common (50%-90%) among HIV-infected injection drug users (IDUs). Coinfection is also common among persons with hemophilia who received clotting factor concentrates before concentrates were effectively treated to inactivate both viruses (i.e., products made before 1987). The risk for acquiring infection through perinatal or sexual exposures is much lower for HCV than for HIV. For persons infected with HIV through sexual exposure (e.g., male-to-male sexual activity), coinfection with HCV is no more common than among similarly aged adults in the general population (3%-5%).
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