Prevalence of hepatitis C virus antibody among healthy blood donors and non-A, non-B hepatitis patients in Thailand.
With the antigen expressed in yeast from a cDNA clone encoding a non-structural region of newly discovered hepatitic C virus (HCV) genome, the prevalence of HCV antibody in people in Thailand was investigated. Antibody was detected in 2.6% of healthy blood donors and in 2.8% of healthy pregnant women. These prevalence rates were higher than those reported previously from Japan, USA and European countries. Among community-acquired, sporadic cases of acute and chronic non-A, non-B hepatitis, however, only 5.7% and 15.4% were shown to possess the antibody, respectively. Among hepatocellular carcinoma patients who were negative for hepatitis B surface antigen in the sera, 11.1% had antibody to HCV. These seroepidemiological data suggest that HCV plays an important role as an etiological agent in Thailand; however, other agents must also be involved in etiologic agents of viral hepatitis and chronic liver disease.
Boonmar
S
S
Department of Enteroviruses, National Institute of Health, Tokyo, Japan.
Pojanagaroon
B
B
Watanabe
Y
Y
Tanaka
Y
Y
Saito
I
I
Miyamura
T
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001782:Blood Donors; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000276:immunology; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000276:immunology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D012016:Reference Values; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D013785:Thailand / Q000453:epidemiology
D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies