title: Massive sero-epidemiological survey of hepatitis C virus: clustering of carriers on the southwest coast of Tsushima, Japan.
abstract: We conducted a mass screening survey for anti-hepatitis C virus antibody (anti-HCV-Ab) among 1,009 inhabitants, 341 males and 668 females, older than 40 years, in south Tsushima in 1989. The overall positive rate for anti-HCV-Ab was 2.3% (2.9% in males and 1.9% in females). The positive rate for anti-HCV-Ab among people with histories of blood transfusions was 14.8% (8/54), which was higher than than (1.6%, 15/955) in people without blood transfusions (P less 0.001). The positive rate (15.1%, 8/53) in people with an elevated level of glutamic oxalacetic transaminase (GOT, greater than or equal to 41 U/liter) or glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT, greater than or equal to 36 U/liter) was significantly higher than that (1.6%, 15/956) for people with normal values of GOT and GPT (P less than 0.001). The most interesting finding was that the anti-HCV-Ab positives without histories of blood transfusions were clustered in a few villages located in the southwestern coastal areas of Tsushima, where the positive rate of 3.7% (13/355) was significantly higher (P less than 0.001) than that of 0.3% (2/600) in other villages.
authors.affiliation: Tsushima Izuhara Hospital.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shimotohno
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tajima
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002353:Carrier State / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000276:immunology*; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D013029:Space-Time Clustering
chemical_list: D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies