High Prevalence of GB Virus C/Hepatitis G Virus in Healthy Persons in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

GB virus C or hepatitis G virus (GBV-C/HGV), a novel Flavivirus, is detected in 1.5% of US blood donors. The prevalence is higher in multiply transfused patients and in persons with liver disease. Because of the increased incidence of hepatitis in Asia, sera from healthy Vietnamese were tested for the presence of GBV-C/HGV RNA by the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Viral RNA was detected in 5.7% of those tested; 6 of 81 volunteer blood donors had positive samples as did 5 of 97 army recruits and 2 of 50 postpartum women. When the 188-bp product from 6 subjects was sequenced, there was 75%-85% homology at the nucleotide level compared with published sequences, indicating a high degree of genotypic variation, even within a putatively well-conserved region of the viral genome. Viremia with this non-cell-associated novel virus appears to be common among normal persons in Vietnam.