High prevalence of GB virus C in Brazil and molecular evidence for intrafamilial transmission.
The prevalence of GB virus C (GBV-C) in candidate Brazilian blood donors with normal and elevated alanine aminotransferase levels was found to be 5.2% (5 of 95) and 6.5% (5 of 76), respectively. Among Brazilian patients, GBV-C was found in 9.5% (13 of 137) of cases of hepatitis not caused by hepatitis A virus (HAV), HBV, HCV, HDV, or HEV (non-A-E hepatitis) and in 18.2% (8 of 44) of individuals infected with HCV. Molecular characterization of GBV-C by partial sequencing of the NS3 region showed clustering between members of a single family, implying intrafamilial transmission. In conclusion, these results together suggest that contagion mechanisms which facilitate intrafamilial transmission of GBV-C may partially explain the high prevalence of viremic carriers worldwide.
Pinho
J R
JR
Serviço de Virologia, Instituto Adolfo Lutz, São Paulo, Brazil. jrrpinho@usp.br
Zanotto
P M
PM
Ferreira
J L
JL
Sumita
L M
LM
Carrilho
F J
FJ
da Silva
L C
LC
Capacci
M L
ML
Silva
A O
AO
Guz
B
B
Gonçales
F L
FL
Gonçales
N S
NS
Buck
G A
GA
Meyers
G A
GA
Bernardini
A P
AP
D001483:Base Sequence; D001782:Blood Donors; D001938:Brazil; D005190:Family; D018067:Flaviviridae / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000235:genetics
D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins