High prevalence of GB Virus C/Hepatitis G Virus RNA among Brazilian blood donors

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of the Hepatitis G Virus on a population of blood donors from S o Paulo, Brazil and to evaluate its association to sociodemographic variables. Two RT-PCR systems targeting the putative 5'NCR and NS3 regions were employed and the former has shown a higher sensitivity. The observed prevalence of HGV-RNA on 545 blood donors was 9.7% (CI 95% 7.4;12.5). Statistical analysis depicted an association with race/ethnicity, black and mulatto donors being more frequently infected; and also with years of education, less educated donors presenting higher prevalences. No association was observed with other sociodemographic parameters as age, gender, place of birth and of residence. DNA sequencing of nine randomly chosen isolates demonstrated the presence of genotypes 1, 2 and 3 among our population but clustering of these Brazilian isolates was not detected upon phylogenetic analysis.

Evaluation of GBV-C / HVG viremia in HIV-infected women

“…The prevalence of GBV-C RNA in the HIV-infected population is much higher than that observed in healthy subjects, with greater geographical variations. In Brazil we and others described a prevalence close to 10% among blood donors 2,11 while in Europe and North America a prevalence of 1-4% was verified 15 . In contrast, 14-43% of HIV-infected subjects harbor the viral RNA.…”

Primary screening of blood donors by nat testing for HCV-RNA: development of an "in-house" method and results

“…Among the PCR-HCV non-reactive donations there were HIV-RNA, HGV-RNA 20 and HBV-DNA positive donors (data not shown), attesting the high specificity of the method (99.83%). Five donations presented an amplification product suggestive of HCV in both pools and subsequently, in individual reactions.…”

“…The system in place is an alternative to more expensive commercial assays; is flexible and allows the fast introduction of new RNA targets, as shown for HGV 20 .…”

“…i) HGV-RNA PCR: HGV-RNA was detected by amplifying a sequence from the 5'UTR in a single-step assay and also by a nested-PCR method targeting the NS3 region, as described 20 . j) EIA: Anti-HCV testing (EIA) was performed either with ABBOTT, Axsym HCV 3.0 (Wiesbaden -Delkenheim, Germany) or ORTHO Anti-HCV EIA 3.0 (Raritan, New Jersey, USA) according to manufacturer's instructions.…”

Detection of GBV-C/HGV RNA in cervico-vaginal smears from healthy individuals

“…High prevalence of GBV-C/HGV RNA has also been demonstrated among Brazilian blood donors, being 9.7% (Levi et al, 2003) and 12% (Amarante et al, 2004). Figure 1 shows the analysis of cervicovaginal samples from healthy volunteers' women to detect GBV-C/HGV RNA by RT-PCR.…”