AIM:To detect the prevalence of anti-HAV IgG antibodies in adult multitransfused beta-thalassemic patients. METHODS:We studied 182 adult beta-thalassemic patients and 209 controls matched for age and sex from the same geographic area, at the same time. Anti-HAV IgG antibodies, viral markers of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were evaluated. RESULTS:Anti-HAV IgG antibodies were detected more frequently in thalassemic patients (133/182; 73.1%) than in healthy controls (38/209; 18.2%, P < 0.0005). When we retrospectively evaluated the prevalence of anti-HAV IgG antibodies in 176/182 (96.7%) thalassemic patients, whose medical history was available for the previous ten years, it was found that 83 (47.2%) of them were continuously anti-HAV IgG positive, 16 (9.1%) acquired anti-HAV IgG antibody during the previous ten years, 49 (27.8%) presented anti-HAV positivity intermittently and 28 (15.9%) were anti-HAV negative continuously. CONCLUSION:Multitransfused adult beta-thalassemic patients present higher frequency of anti-HAV IgG a n t i b o d i e s t h a n n o r m a l p o p u l a t i o n o f t h e s a m e geographic area. This difference is difficult to explain, but it can be attributed to the higher vulnerability of thalassemics to HAV infection and to passive transfer of anti-HAV antibodies by blood transfusions.
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