GB virus C infection in blood donors from Córdoba, Argentina

RÉ VIVIANA; LAMPE ELIZABETH; SPINSANTI LORENA; JOISON AGUSTÍN; BEPRE HECTOR; CONTIGIANI MARTA

VOX SANGUINIS

Wolfang Mayr

Lugar: Vienna; Año: 2001 vol. 81 p. 54 - 54

0042-9007

Parenteral transmission of GBV-C/hepatitis G virus has been reported.RNA HGV prevalence among blood donors has been reported at varying range from 0.8 to 4% in developed countries. From the region of Cordoba no data are available up to now. The aim of this work was to asses the prevalence of Hepatitis G virus (HGV) among healthy blood donors from Córdoba Argentina. All serum samples (n=104) were serologically negative for HBs antigen, HIV and HCV antibodies. HGV genome were amplified with the primers from de NS5 region by RT- Nested PCR. HGV RNA was detected in 8 of 104 sera of blood donors from Cordoba Argentina. The proportion  (7.7%) of HGV infected blood donors was high when compared to developed countries but less than to 10 % of RNA prevalence detected among blood donors from Brazil, an Argentine neighbor country.  It is important to emphasize that the prevalence of HGV infection was probably underestimating since in this study RNA was detected with RT - PCR assay, as a result of an absence of serological methods available for the detection of others markers. These results demonstrate that HGV virus circulates in our population; standing out the necessity of implementation of methods for determination of seroprevalence in our country.