Co-infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is highly prevalent in intravenous drug users (IDUs). Because of the proximity to the “Golden Triangle”, HIV prevalence among the IDUs is very high in the China-Myanmar border region. However, there are few studies about co-infection with HIV and HCV and/or HBV, especially in the region that belongs to Myanmar.

The research team supervised by Prof. ZHENG Yongtang from Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences did investigation for HIV, HBV and HCV serological status among 721 IDUs, including 403 Chinese and 318 Burmese.

Research result shows that HVC infection is the most prevalent among various viruses, followed by HBV and HIV. It is, therefore, concluded that the HIV epidemic appears to be in a downward trend compared with previous reports.

In addition, there are more HIV-HBV, HIV-HCV, and HIV-HBV-HCV co-infected IDUs in China than in Myanmar, indicating that all infections are more prevalent among the Chinese IDUs than among the Burmese IDUs. The main findings have been published in PLoS ONE (6: e16349, 2011).

This research has received grants from National Basic Research Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Eleventh Five-Year Key Scientific and Technological Program of China, and HIV/AIDS Asia Regional Program.