Infection with GB virus C and hepatitis C virus in drug addicts, patients on maintenance hemodialysis, or with chronic liver disease in Nepal

✍ Scribed by Shrestha, Santosh Man; Shrestha, Shobhana; Tsuda, Fumio; Sawada, Naoto; Tanaka, Takeshi; Okamoto, Hiroaki; Miyakawa, Yuzo; Mayumi, Makoto

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 40 KB
• Volume: 53
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(199710)53:2<157::aid-jmv8>3.0.co;2-8

✦ Synopsis

Infection with GB virus C (GBV-C) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) was surveyed in various populations in Kathmandu, Nepal. GBV-C RNA and HCV RNA were detected in four (2%) and none, respectively, of 181 normal controls. Viral RNAs were detected significantly more frequently (P < 0.001) in 32 (44%) and 43 (60%), respectively, of 72 users of illicit intravenous drug, and in three (14%) and one (5%) of 22 patients on maintenance hemodialysis. The three hemodialysis patients with GBV-C RNA had been transfused with more blood units than the 19 without GBV-C RNA (51 ± 21 vs. 5 ± 3 units, P < 0.01), and one was co-infected with HCV. Of 145 patients with chronic liver disease, GBV-C RNA was detected in four (3%) and HCV RNA in 12 (8%); only one patient with GBV-C RNA was without markers of HCV or hepatitis B virus infection. In the 32 drug addicts infected with GBV-C, genotypes were G1 in two (6%), G2 in 26 (81%), G3 in three (9%), and the remaining one (3%) was coinfected with G2 and G3. GBV-C genotypes in the 13 individuals in the populations other than drug addicts were G2 in 11 (85%) and G3 in two (15%). HCV genotypes in the 43 drug addicts with viremia were I/1a in 21 (49%), V/3a in 19 (44%) and I/1a plus V/3a in two (5%); these genotypes were not prevalent in normal controls and patients with chronic liver disease in Nepal. These results indicate that GBV-C infection is prevalent in healthy subjects in Nepal at a frequency (2%) comparable with those in the other countries and that GBV-C transmits efficiently by intravenous drug abuse among drug addicts and by transfusion in hemodialysis patients.