{"doi":"10.1093/infdis/jiaa006","title":"Prevalence and Phylogenetic Characterization of Hepatitis C Virus Among Indian Men Who Have Sex With Men: Limited Evidence for Sexual Transmission","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Data from high-income countries suggest increasing hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence/incidence among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected men who have sex with men (MSM), but limited data derive from low-and-middle-income countries. METHODS: We recruited 4994 MSM from 5 states across India using respondent-driven sampling. Logistic regression incorporating respondent-driven sampling weights and machine learning feature selection were used to identify correlates of prevalent HCV, and Bayesian phylogenetic analysis was used to examine genetic clustering. RESULTS: The median age was 25 years, the HIV prevalence was 7.2%, and 49.3% of participants reported recent unprotected anal intercourse. The HCV prevalence was 1.3% (95% confidence interval, 1.0%-1.6%; site range, 0.2%-3.4%) and was 3.1% in HIV-positive versus 1.1% among HIV-negative men. HCV infection was significantly associated with injection drug use (odds ratio, 177.1; 95% confidence interval, 72.7-431.5) and HIV infection (4.34; 1.88-10.05). Machine learning did not uncover any additional epidemiologic signal. Phylogenetic analysis revealed 3 clusters suggestive of linked transmission; each contained ≥1 individual reporting injection drug use. CONCLUSIONS: We observed a low HCV prevalence in this large sample of MSM despite a high prevalence of known risk factors, reflecting either the need for a threshold of HCV for sexual transmission and/or variability in sexual practices across settings.","journal":"The Journal of Infectious Diseases","year":2020,"id":84436,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":9,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9325,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":115227,"name":"Priya Duggal","orcid":"0000-0001-5809-2081","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432911,"name":"Aylur K. Srikrishnan","orcid":"0000-0002-0533-6836","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432912,"name":"Shanmugam Saravanan","orcid":"0000-0002-5991-8022","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432913,"name":"Pachamuthu Balakrishnan","orcid":"0000-0002-1710-9155","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":433471,"name":"Canjeevaran K. Vasudevan","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":394634,"name":"David D. Celentano","orcid":"0000-0002-6061-8799","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":237962,"name":"David L. Thomas","orcid":"0000-0002-0749-925X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":228276,"name":"Shruti H. Mehta","orcid":"0000-0002-2523-0959","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432914,"name":"Sunil S. Solomon","orcid":"0000-0002-3296-1514","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432910,"name":"Steven J. Clipman","orcid":"0000-0002-2366-8420","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":47,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:54:50.827092Z","pmid":"31917837","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}