[Hepatitis C: prevalence and risk factors among patients with HIV/AIDS in Belém Pará, in Brazilian Amazon].

The objective of this investigation was to study the prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection and to identify possible risk factors for its transmission, in 406 adult patients with HIV/AIDS who attended at public health services, in Belém city, Pará, Brazil. The anti-HCV was performed by third generation immunoenzymatic technique, and the HCV RNA by polymerase chain reaction. The overall prevalence of hepatitis C virus was 16% (CI: 12.4 - 19.6). Multivariate analysis showed association between virus C infection and age, with significant risk in the group about fifty years old or more (OR=9.75), blood transfusion (OR=4.74) and use of injecting drugs (OR=149.28). The hepatitis C virus infection was detected in 83.7% of intravenous drug users and 22.1% of transfused patients. These data indicate the efficient transmission of the virus through the percutaneous exposition and reaffirm the high risk to hepatitis C among injectable illicit drug user.