Inhabitants and patients of two cities in Vietnam were tested for antibodies to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV), hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and antibody to HBsAg (anti-HBs). Anti-HCV was detected in 43 (9%) of 491 individuals without liver disease in Ho Chi Minh, more frequently (P < 0.001) than in 18 (4%) of 511 in Hanoi. There was no apparent age-specific distribution of anti-HCV. Among inhabitants of both cities, HBsAg and anti-HBs were frequent, detected in 10-14% and 35-37%, respectively; the prevalence of anti-HBs increased in parallel with age. Among individuals at high risk, the prevalence of anti-HCV was particularly high in drug users (58/67 or 87%) and patients on maintenance haemodialysis (15/28 or 54%) or with haemophilia (7/24 or 29%) in Ho Chi Minh, and in drug users in Hanoi (61/200 or 31%). Prevalence of HBsAg and anti-HBs in high-risk groups was not different from those in the general population. Screening of anti-HCV in blood donors in Vietnam is of urgent necessity because blood supply is dependent on commercial blood donors, many of whom are drug users at high risk.

No abstract

The influence of food intake on the pharmacokinetics of artemisinin was studied with six healthy Vietnamese male subjects. In a crossover study, artemisinin capsules (500 mg) were administered with and without food after an overnight fast. Plasma samples were obtained up to 24 h after intake of each drug. Measurement of artemisinin concentrations was performed by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. Tolerance was evaluated according to subjective and objective findings, including repeated physical examinations, routine blood investigations, and electrocardiograms. Pharmacokinetics were analyzed with a noncompartmental method and with a one-compartment model. This model had either zero-order or first-order input. No statistically significant differences were found between the results of the two experimental conditions. Specifically, there were no consistent differences in parameters most likely to be affected by food intake, including absorption profile, absorption rate, bioavailability (f) (as reflected in area under the concentration time curve [AUC]), and drug clearance. Some mean +/- standard deviation parameters after food were as follows: maximum concentration of drug in serum (Cmax), 443 +/- 224 microg x liter(-1); time to Cmax, 1.78 +/- 1.2 h; AUC, 2,092 +/- 1,441 ng x ml(-1) x h, apparent clearance/f, 321 +/- 167 liter x h(-1); mean residence time, 4.42 +/- 1.31 h; and time at which half of the terminal value was reached, 0.97 +/- 0.68 h. The total amount of artemisinin excreted in urine was less than 1% of the dose. We conclude that food intake has no major effect on artemisinin pharmacokinetics. In addition, we conclude tentatively that artemisinin is cleared by the liver, that this clearance does not depend on liver blood flow (i.e., that artemisinin is a so-called low-clearance drug), and that absorption of the drug is not affected by food intake.

Serum specimens (n = 1899) were assayed for infections with HTLV-I, HTLV-II, and HIV-1 in seven classified groups of normal healthy controls, children, pregnant women, prostitutes, intravenous drug abusers, patients under going hemodialysis, and hemophiliacs in South and North Vietnam. Surprisingly, 125 of 954 samples from South Vietnam exhibited seropositivity for HTLV-II and 119 of these belonged to the group of IVDAs (n = 200). The remaining six positives were a healthy control, a prostitute, two children, and two patients under going hemodialysis. Two IVDAs who were seropositive for HTLV-I and 10 of 15 seropositives for HIV-1 were also positive for HTLV-II in this population. In contrast, no seropositives to any of the viruses were detected in the North Vietnamese samples (0 of 945). The HTLV-II-seropositive IVDAs exhibited increased seropositivity with age compared with HIV-1 seropositivity in the population, and there was no statistical relation between seropositivity for HTLV-II and HIV-1. The HTLV-IIs in South Vietnam IVDAs appeared, by subtype-specific peptide ELISA, to be a mixture of both subtypes a and b, with subtype a predominant. It seems possible that HTLV-II may have been introduced into this population from IVDAs from the United States during the Vietnam conflict, but in a period prior to, or early in, the introduction of HIV-1 to IVDAs.