Magnitude of hepatitis C virus infection in India: Prevalence in healthy blood donors, acute and chronic liver diseases

✍ Scribed by Panigrahi, Aswini K.; Panda, Subrat K.; Dixit, Rajesh K.; Rao, Kanury V. S.; Acharya, Subrat K.; Dasarathy, Srinivasan; Nanu, Ambika

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 216 KB
• Volume: 51
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(199703)51:3<167::aid-jmv5>3.0.co;2-4

✦ Synopsis

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.