Occult HBV infection in untreated HIV-infected adults in Côte d'Ivoire

In countries with high rates of chronic HBV, the World Health Organization recommends screening all HIV-infected adults for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) before initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART), and starting HIV-HBV-coinfected patients on regimens containing lamivudine (3TC) or emtricitabine (FTC) plus tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF). Here, we estimated the prevalence of untreated HIV-infected adults with negative serum HBsAg and detectable plasma HBV DNA in Côte d'Ivoire. This was a cross-sectional survey. We tested all untreated HIV type-1 (HIV-1)-infected adults with CD4(+) T-cell counts