A cross‐sectional serum investigation of a clustering hepatitis C virus infection in Southwest China

Abstract

Serum samples were collected in a village with a clustering hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. HCV antibody, HCV RNA loads, liver function indexes, HCV envelope antibody, and neutralizing activity were assessed. Among 851 adult sera, 342 samples were positive for anti-HCV. Of these positive samples, 254 (74.3%) were HCV RNA positive (≥800 copies/mL). None of the 69 children's sera were positive for HCV antibody or RNA. Among the HCV antibody positive sera, alanine aminotransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase levels increased with the higher virus loads, but decreased when virus loads were higher than 1 × 10 copies/mL. HCV envelope antibody and neutralizing antibody levels increased with viral load.

Spatial and temporal analysis of liver cancer mortality in Yunnan province, China, 2015–2019

“…This high liver cancer mortality probably can be attributed to HBV/HCV infection, as HBV infection rate was much higher in Yunnan (49.92/100,000) when compared with other regions in China, like Jiangsu province (16.17/100,000) and Shanghai (35.07/100,000) ( 22 ). Besides, Yunnan province is also an important epidemic center for blood-borne viruses such as HCV ( 23 , 24 ). Meanwhile, Yunnan province is an economically underdeveloped region locates in southwest border of China.…”