Antibodies to hepatitis C virus in blood donors.
Recently a recombinant polypeptide of hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been developed by the Chiron Corporation in California. This antigen has been used to develop an ELISA test (Ortho Diagnostic Systems for serum anti-HCV antibodies. Preliminary data have shown that this virus is the major cause of NANB hepatitis in the world. We examined differences in anti-HCV prevalence among subgroups of blood donors (total sera examined 639) classified for past or present exposure to HBV or not, and for ALT levels. The anti-HCV prevalence found in regular blood donors with normal ALT levels and no antibody to HBcAg was 1.2%. No significant difference in the anti-HCV prevalence was found among other subgroups of blood donors except that a higher prevalence (10%) was found in a group with both elevated ALT and HBV markers. These preliminary findings suggest that the policy of blood supply should take into account the advent of HCV antibody test.
Ferroni
P
P
Istituto di Virologia, Università di Milano, Italy.
Tagger
A
A
Ribero
M L
ML
Grossi
A
A
Pregliasco
F
F
Pasquali
M L
ML
Salvaneschi
S
S
D001782:Blood Donors; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000276:immunology*; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence
D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies