Effect of schistosomiasis and hepatitis on liver disease.

Abstract

Abstract. Infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) has become the most important public health problem in Egypt. In Egypt, viral hepatitis along with infection with Schistosoma mansoni is the major cause of chronic liver disease and liver cirrhosis. Although HCV infection is highly prevalent in Egypt, very little information is available on the distribution of the different genotypes of HCV. Our aims in this study were first to determine the prevalence of viral and parasite infections in patients with chronic liver disease and then to assess the distribution of HCV genotypes in these patients. In the present study, 151 individuals (50 with chronic liver disease, 51 with chronic diseases of organs other than the liver, and 50 apparently healthy persons) were investigated. The last 2 groups served as control groups. These individuals were subjected to routine liver function tests and detection of serum antibodies to bilharziasis, hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), and HCV. Furthermore, the presence of hepatitis G virus (HGV) and HCV in the serum samples were tested for by a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Prevalence of different genotypes of HCV in patients positive for HCV were determined by RT-PCR using type-specific primers. Results of the study revealed that 84, 74, 12, and 20% of patients with chronic liver disease were positive for Schistosoma mansoni, HCV, HBsAg, and HGV, respectively, as compared to 51, 43.1, 2, and 4% of patients with other chronic diseases and 22, 6, 0, and 0% of apparently healthy individuals. One hundred percent of patients with chronic liver disease, 72.5% of those with other diseases, and 26% of normal controls were shown to have at least one of the studied infectious agents. Two or more of the agents were highly coincident in patients with chronic liver disease. In Egypt, HCV genotype 4a is highly prevalent, where it contributed 85% of the tested samples in comparison to 10, 2.5, and 2.5% for subtypes 1b, 2a, and 3a, respectively. In conclusion, these results suggest that in Egypt, HCV along with schistosomal parasite infection is the major risk factor for chronic liver disease. In most Egyptian patients, HCV genotype 4 is highly prevalent.Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been identified as the major causative agent of posttransfusion and sporadic communityacquired non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANBH). 1,2 Hepatitis C virus is a single-stranded RNA virus closely related to pestiviruses and flaviviruses. The viral RNA has 2 short nontranslational regions at the 5Ј and 3Ј ends enclosing a single large open reading frame. Individual proteins, the core (C), envelope (E1 and E2), and nonstructural proteins (NS1-NS5) 3,4 are cleaved from the polyprotein by host and viral protease. Hepatitis C virus is highly prevalent in Egypt, where its antibodies were detected in 10-30% of the Egyptian population. [5][6][7][8] Recently, HCV infection was concluded to be the main cause of chronic liver disease in Egypt, where this infection is largely associated with schistosomiasis (Gandi...

Epidemiology of hepatitis viruses among hepatocellular carcinoma cases and healthy people in Egypt: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…8,15,63 30 This trend is consistent with our results. We found a large disparity among adults, with a prevalence of 15.4% and urban prevalence of 8.1%.…”

“…HCV prevalence differences between urban and rural populations have been suggested, so we systematically explored this hypothesis using strict and consistent definitions. 8,[15][16][17][18]26 Statistical power Two types of statistical power issues exist: small participant sample size in individual studies and small sample size of studies, particularly when stratified by subfactors of analysis (e.g. geographic region, age group, etc).…”

Dysregulation of blood lymphocyte subsets and natural killer cells in schistosomal liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma

“…However, Ono et al [24] reported that NK cell activities were associated with the progression of HCC. The discrepancy between our results and those of others is not completely clear, but may be because the Egyptian patients with LC and HCC were infected with schistosomiasis, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C [25][26][27]. Further study is needed to evaluate the role of viral hepatitis and parasites on lymphocyte subsets and NK cells.…”

Parasites and Oncogenesis with a Special Reference to Gastro-Intestinal Neoplasia Induced by Cryptosporidium parvum

“…Patients with S. mansoni have higher incidence of HBV or HCV infection (two viruses associated with cancerogenesis process), compared to noninfected controls (Halim et al 1999). The high exposure of schistosomiasis patients to HBV and HCV could be partly explained by transmission of these viruses during blood transfusion consecutive to haematemesis which is a relatively frequent complication of hepatosplenic schistosomiasis, via contaminated blood, syringes and needles (Darwish et al 1993).…”