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Magnitude of hepatitis C virus infection in India: Prevalence in healthy blood donors, acute and chronic liver diseases
Author(s) -
Panigrahi Aswini K.,
Panda Subrat K.,
Dixit Rajesh K.,
Rao Kanury V. S.,
Acharya Subrat K.,
Dasarathy Srinivasan,
Nanu Ambika
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(199703)51:3<167::aid-jmv5>3.0.co;2-4
Subject(s) - medicine , virology , antibody , hepatitis c virus , viral disease , nested polymerase chain reaction , chronic liver disease , flaviviridae , liver disease , virus , hepatitis , immunology , polymerase chain reaction , hepatitis c , viral hepatitis , acute hepatitis , serology , biology , cirrhosis , gene , biochemistry
An enzyme immunoassay (EIA) was developed in‐house for the detection of anti‐hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody against the prevailing genotypes in India. The specific reactivity of the test was compared with commercial second and third‐generation EIAs and reverse transcription nested polymerase chain reaction (RT‐nested PCR). Fifteen thousand nine hundred twenty‐two healthy blood donors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India, were screened for anti‐HCV antibody. Two hundred ninety‐five (1.85%) of these donors were positive. The screening was also used to determine how many patients with acute hepatitis and chronic liver diseases were positive for anti‐HCV antibody. Five hundred sixty‐four chronic liver disease patients were screened for anti‐HCV antibody and 78 (13.83%) were found positive. Two hundred forty‐seven sporadic acute viral hepatitis patients were screened for viral infection markers. Hepatitis B and E viruses (HBV and HEV) were the major etiologic agents. HCV was associated with 9% of the acute cases. Anti‐HCV core IgM with HCV RNA detection were found to be helpful for the diagnosis of acute HCV infection. J. Med. Virol. 51:167–174, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.