Methamphetamine injecting is associated with phylogenetic clustering of hepatitis C virus infection among street-involved youth in Vancouver, Canada.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Among prospective cohorts of people who inject drugs (PWID), phylogenetic clustering of HCV infection has been observed. However, the majority of studies have included older PWID, representing distant transmission events. The aim of this study was to investigate phylogenetic clustering of HCV infection among a cohort of street-involved youth.

Methods

Data were derived from a prospective cohort of street-involved youth aged 14-26 recruited between 2005 and 2012 in Vancouver, Canada (At Risk Youth Study, ARYS). HCV RNA testing and sequencing (Core-E2) were performed on HCV positive participants. Phylogenetic trees were inferred using maximum likelihood methods and clusters were identified using ClusterPicker (Core-E2 without HVR1, 90% bootstrap threshold, 0.05 genet

SUBMITTER: Cunningham EB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4461061 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature