Tomoaki Tanimoto

TL;DR: The prevalence study and the characterization of hepatitis C virus (HCV) was carried out in the Philippines and the sequence determination of the 5′‐untranslated region (5′‐UTR)‐Core and the NS5B regions of HCV was carriedOut in this study.

TL;DR: Phylogenetic analysis revealed close associations between Hai Phong strains and strains from Southern China: the Yunnan province for genotype 3b; the Guangxi province for Genotype 6e; the USA for genotypes 1a; and Southern Vietnam for genotyp 1a and 6e.

TL;DR: Although HBV and HIV‐1 share modes of transmission, major transmission routes of HBV have been different from those of HIV‐2 in Hai Phong, Vietnam, and no significant difference in HBV genotype distribution was observed among different HIV infection‐risk groups.

TL;DR: HCV strains may be introduced occasionally into the Philippines possibly through Metro Manila as a main entry point, Considering the fact that an HIV epidemic started primarily via contaminated needle sharing in Asia, the constantly high rate of HCV infections and the newly introduced foreign HCV strains in the absence of HIV epidemic warrant further investigation.

TL;DR: The findings suggest that the current harm reduction programs designed to prevent HIV transmission in PWID and FSW may be insufficient to prevent the transmission of hepatitis viruses, particularly HCV, in Haiphong, Vietnam.