Hepatitis-G Virus Infection in Multi-transfused Patients and Intravenous Drug Abusers: New Delhi Experience

Abstract

Hepatitis G virus (HGV) is a newly described virus that has been implicated in transfusion-associated hepatitis. HGV-RNA indicating current infection has frequently been isolated from the sera of multi-transfused patients (MTPs) and that of intravenous drug abusers (IVDAs). There is insufficient data on its prevalence among these high-risk groups in India. Hence this study was designed to evaluate the prevalence of HGV infection in MTPs and IVDAs. A total of 90 (57 males and 33 females) MTPs and 65 (44 males and 21 females) IVDAs were recruited in the study. Patients' sera were tested for liver function profile, HGV-RNA, anti-HCV, HCV-RNA, HBsAg, and HBV-DNA. HGV-RNA was detected in 17.7% (16/90) MTPs and 23% (15/65) IVDAs, and 93.5% of our HGV-positive patients were found to be co-infected with either HBV (38.7%) or HCV (74.1%). The sero-prevalence of HBV was found out to be 40% and 21.5%, respectively, in the two groups, that of HCV was 32.2% and 32.3%, respectively, and dual infection was observed in 15.5% and 10.7% of the subjects, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between the clinical, biochemical, and serological profiles of HGV-positive and negative patients. The prevalence of HGV infection in these high-risk groups is significantly higher than in controls. HGV is found to be co-infected more frequently with HCV than with HBV.

Hepatitis B Virus Genome Analysis in Patients of Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Asymptomatic Carriers from Northern, Southern and North East India

“…In the core gene, the most common and expected mutation of T  V at codon 120 was observed in majority of the HCC cases, which is in agreement with published data 44 . On the other hand, A  T at position 109 was documented in two cases of HCC, and was also reported earlier 46 . High frequency for many mutations like 28W  stop and 41S  T is perhaps due to patient age and duration of infection as a consequence of chronic HBV infections.…”

Overview of Substance Abuse and Hepatitis C Virus Infection and Co-infections in India

“…Higher figures were reported from the north and the west compared with the east. One study also reported hepatitis G virus seroprevalence of 23% (Asim et al 2008). …”

“…There are four publications (from three samples) from the north-eastern states (two samples from Manipur and one from Nagaland); four from the east (three from Kolkata and one from Darjeeling); four from the north (two from Delhi and two from Amritsar) and three from the south and west (one each from Calicut, Chennai and Mumbai). Of these, two studies focused only on already HIV-positive individuals (Saha et al 2000;Solomon et al 2008); one study compared HCV prevalence among exclusive IDU, exclusive NIDU and mixed groups (Tiwari et al 2006); and three studies compared IDU with other high-risk groups (Sandesh et al 2006;Asim et al 2008;Jindal et al 2008). Although data are not shown here, IDU had the highest HCV prevalence in these studies compared with other groups.…”

“…Only six out of the 15 studies had a sample size more than . For detection of anti-HCV antibodies, most studies used ELISA with some specifically mentioning thirdgeneration ELISA kits; only three studies tested for HCV RNA using RT-PCR (Tiwari et al 2006;Asim et al 2008;Jindal et al 2008); finally, two studies used enzyme immunoassay with confirmatory line immunoassay (Baveja et al 2003) or recombinant immunoblast assay (Das et al 2007). Some studies mentioned basic details of the sample characteristics (age, gender, education, primary drug of abuse, duration of drug use, etc.…”

Consensus Statement of HCV Task Force of the Indian National Association for Study of the Liver (INASL). Part I: Status Report of HCV Infection in India

“…86 Though prevalence of HCV infection among IVDUs in most Indian states is 30%-50%, a higher prevalence has been reported from the northeastern states. [87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100] States that share a border with Myanmar, i.e. Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram, have a large number of IVDUs.…”