An outbreak of acute hepatitis A among young adult men: clinical features and HIV coinfection rate from a large teaching hospital in Rome, Italy

Arturo Ciccullo, R. Gagliardini, Gianmaria Baldin, A. Borghetti, Davide Moschese, Arianna Emiliozzi, Francesca Lombardi, Rosalba Ricci, Domenico Speziale, Federico Pallavicini, Simona Di Giambenedetto

Risultato della ricerca: Contributo in rivistaArticolo in rivista

4 Citazioni (Scopus)

Abstract

Objectives: Italy is a low-incidence region for hepatitis A; however, during the last 2 years an increase in the incidence of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection was reported in Europe. The aim of this study was to describe this recent outbreak. Methods: We retrospectively analysed all cases of acute hepatitis A diagnosed at our laboratory between January 2010 and June 2017. We evaluated the following variables at the time of diagnosis: sex, age, nationality, glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT/AST), glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT/ALT), bilirubin concentration, international normalized ratio (INR) and the presence or absence of anti-HIV-1/2 antibodies. Hospitalization was also considered. We analysed these parameters using the χ2 test and Mann–Whitney U-test. Results: A total of 225 cases were analysed; 82.7% were in male patients, 94.2% were in Italians and the median age of the patients was 36.4 years. At diagnosis, the median GOT value was 306 U/L, the median GPT was 1389 U/L, and the median total bilirubin value was 5.88 mg/dL. Hospitalization was required for 142 patients, with a median duration of hospital stay of 8.5 days. In 2016-2017 we registered 141 cases, with a higher prevalence of male patients, higher GPT values and a higher prevalence of patients aged 20-39 years compared with older (2010-2015) cases. Homosexual intercourse was reported as the HAV risk factor in 70.2% of patients. HIV serology was available for 120 patients: 24 were HIV-positive, four of whom represented new diagnoses. HIV-positive patients showed lower bilirubin and GPT values and fewer hospitalizations than HIV-negative patients. Conclusions: In 2016–2017, we saw a rise in the number of hepatitis A cases, with a higher prevalence of adult male patients. No significant differences regarding the prevalence of HIV coinfection emerged.
Lingua originaleEnglish
pagine (da-a)369-375
Numero di pagine7
RivistaHIV Medicine
Volume19
DOI
Stato di pubblicazionePubblicato - 2018

Keywords

  • HIV
  • Health Policy
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Pharmacology (medical)
  • hepatitis A
  • men who have sex with men
  • outbreak

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