OBJECTIVE This study explores the trends and associated factors of HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV) and syphilis seroconversion among Chinese methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) clients over a follow-up period of up to 7 years. DESIGN Drug users from 14 MMT clinics in Guangdong Province were recruited during 2006-2014. Participants were seronegative with at least one HIV, HCV or syphilis infect...

We examined the role of human cytokines in the natural course of hepatitis B surface Ag (HBsAg) seroconversion in chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The clinical course of spontaneous HBsAg seroconversion was assessed in 296 chronically HBV-infected patients. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, IL-12β, IL-13, IL-27, and IFN-γ genes were examined in 296 ch...

The Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) is a non-particulate secretory protein, which is not essential for viral assembly or replication but is important for the establishment of persistent infection in vivo. A recent study suggested that it down-regulates the innate immune response to infection and function as a T cell tolerogen [1]. For patients with chronic HBeAg positive chronic hepatitis B infec...

In most cohort studies of HIV infection and AIDS, seroprevalent cases provide a substantial amount of information. Inclusion of these people in natural history studies requires a fairly unbiased method to estimate their seroconversion distribution. When a cohort-based estimate is not feasible, an alternative is to estimate individual seroconversion distributions, based on marker values at entry...

This study assessed the diagnostic value of the cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific IgG avidity index (AI) for pregnant women without a history of CMV seroconversion. Sera were studied from 40 women with CMV seroconversion (group I), 70 with past CMV infection (group II), 10 (20 sera) with serologic reactivation (group III), and 41 with CMV-specific IgM without proven seroconversion (group IV). Sera...

Vaccination of multi-age layer operations, wherein one million plus commercial layer chickens are housed, has been spurious until the development of a self-propelled, constant-speed spray vaccinator. Still, even with its use, live Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) vaccinations have been questionable in terms of seroconversion. Using the vaccinator as a research tool over the past 5 yr, factors have...

The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in hemodialysis units (HD) is higher than among normal population. Seroconversion was included in many previous studies which constitute a great problem against infection control policies. The aim of this study was to evaluate seroconversion rate and the effect of isolation of hepatitis C positive patients as infection control method. This is ...

BACKGROUND Patients with chronic renal disease should be vaccinated as soon as dialysis is forestalled, and this could improve the seroconversion of hepatitis B vaccination. OBJECTIVES In this study, we aimed to compare seroconversion and immune response rates using 4 doses of 40 μg and 3 doses of 20 μg Euvax B recombinant Hepatitis B surface Antigen (HBs Ag) vaccine administered to predialys...

BACKGROUND It is unclear whether hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroconversion induced by nucleos(t)ide analogues (NUC) has a prognosis that is similar to that of spontaneous HBeAg seroconversion. METHODS A total of 148 noncirrhotic NUC-induced HBeAg seroconverters were consecutively enrolled. A historical control of 407 noncirrhotic spontaneous HBeAg seroconverters was also recruited. We comp...