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Occult hepatitis B virus infection among injecting drug users in the Central-West Region of Brazil Dias de Matos, Márcia Alves; Ferreira, Renata Carneiro; Rodrigues, Fabiana Perez; Marinho, Tamíris Augusto; Lopes, Carmen Luci Rodrigues; Novais, Antônia Carlos Magalhães; Motta-Castro, Ana Rita Coimbra; Teles, Sheila Araújo; Souto, Francisco José Dutra & Martins, Regina Maria Bringel Abstract The prevalence of occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection was investigated in 149 hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) negative injecting drug users (IDUs) in the Central-West Region of Brazil. Of these individuals, 19 were positive for HBV DNA, resulting in an occult HBV infection prevalence of 12.7% (19/149); six of these 19 individuals had anti-HBV core and/or anti-HBV surface antibodies and 13 were negative for HBV markers. All IDUs with occult hepatitis B reported sexual and/or parenteral risk behaviours. All HBV DNA-positive samples were successfully genotyped. Genotype D was the most common (17/19), followed by genotype A (2/19). These findings reveal a high prevalence of occult HBV infection and the predominance of genotype D among IDUs in Brazil’s Central-West Region. Keywords hepatitis B virus; occult infection; genotypes

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