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Prevalence studies of GB virus-C infection using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction

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Author

  • George J. Dawson
  • George G. Schlauder
  • Tami J. Pilot-Matias
  • Dwain Thiele
  • Thomas P. Leary
  • Paul Murphy
  • Jon E Rosenblatt
  • John N. Simons
  • Francis E.A. Martinson
  • Robin A. Gutierrez
  • Joseph R. Lentino
  • Constance Pachucki
  • A. Scott Muerhoff
  • Anders Widell
  • Gary Tegtmeier
  • Suresh Desai
  • Isa K. Mushahwar
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Summary, in English

Among the three recently described GB viruses (GBV-A, GBV-B, and GBV-C), only GBV-C has been linked to cryptogenic hepatitis in man. Because of the limited utility of currently available research tests to determine antibody response to GBV-C proteins, the prevalence of GBV-C RNA in human sera was studied using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The prevalence of GBV-C is higher among volunteer blood donors with elevated serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels (3.9%) than among volunteer blood donors with normal ALT levels (0.8%). Higher rates were also noted among commercial blood donors (12.9%) and intravenous drug users (16.0%). GBV-C was frequently detected in residents of West Africa, where the prevalence was > 10% in most age groups. Approximately 20% of patients diagnosed with either acute or chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) were found to be positive for GBV-C RNA. In addition, GBV-C RNA sequences were detected in individuals diagnosed with non-A-E hepatitis, with clinical courses ranging from mild disease to fulminant hepatitis. Fourteen of sixteen subjects with or without clinically apparent hepatitis were positive for GBV-C RNA more than 1 year after the initial positive result.

Publishing year

1996

Language

English

Pages

97-103

Publication/Series

Journal of Medical Virology

Volume

50

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Topic

  • Microbiology in the medical area

Keywords

  • HCV
  • GBV-C
  • hepatitis

Status

Published

Research group

  • Clinical Microbiology, Malmö

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1096-9071