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Prevalence of hepatitis C in tropical communities: The importance of confirmatory assays
Author(s) -
Tibbs C. J.,
Palmer S. J.,
Coker R.,
Clark S. K.,
Parsons G. M.,
Hojvat S.,
Peterson D.,
Banatvala J. E.
Publication year - 1991
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/jmv.1890340302
Subject(s) - virology , antibody , medicine , viral disease , hepatitis c virus , immunology , biology , virus
The prevalence of antibody to hepatitis C virus (HCV) was estimated in 3 tropical populations using 2 screening ELlSAs to detect antibody to the c100‐3 antigen and 2 supplementary assays designed to test the specificity of these tests. Two hundred and eighty‐six of 385 (74.2%) sera from Kiribati, 17 of 138 (12.3%) sera from Vanuatu, and 39 of 173 (22.5%) sera from Zaire were reactive in the initial screening assay. The proportion of reactive sera which were also reactive in the second screening ELISA varied between populations (55.1% in Kiribati, 85.1% in Vanuatu, and 39.2% from Zaire). Reactive sera were selected at random for confirmatory testing. Only 3 of 49 (6.12%) of sera from Kiribati and 1 of 14 (4.76%) of sera from Vanuatu positive in the initial ELISA were reactive in the confirmatory assays. The proportion of confirmed positive sera from Zaire was higher 8 of 28 (28.5%). Based on the results of these supplementary assays the estimated prevalence of anti‐HCV in these populations is 4.8% in Kiribati, <1% in Vanuatu, and 6.4% in Zaire. Reliance on a single screening ELISA to estimate the prevalence of anti‐HCV in stored sera from tropical communities may lead to a gross over‐estimate of the true prevalence in these populations.