title: Epidemiology of hepatitis B, C, E, and G virus infections and molecular analysis of hepatitis G virus isolates in Bolivia.
abstract: Prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis G virus (HGV), and hepatitis E virus (HEV) was investigated among 574 healthy blood donors in Bolivia. HCV RNA and HGV RNA in the serum were identified by a nested reverse transcription-PCR using primers derived from the 5' untranslated region (5' UTR). We also tested for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and for the antibody to HEV. The results revealed that HGV RNA was present in 84 of 574 (14.6%) tested blood donors, whereas HBsAg was detected in only 2 (0.3%) donors, and no individuals positive for HCV RNA were found. Anti-HEV immunoglobulin G (IgG) was detected in 93 (16.2%) individuals and anti-HEV IgM was found in 10 (1.7%) individuals among the same population. Phylogenetic analysis of 44 HGV isolates in the 5' UTR showed that 27 (61%) isolates were genotype 3 (Asian type) and the remaining 17 (39%) isolates were genotype 2 (United States and European type). Moreover, we obtained a full-length nucleotide sequence of the HGV genome (designated HGV-BL230) recovered from a Bolivian blood donor. The BL230 was composed of 9,227 nucleotides and had a single open reading frame, encoding 2,842 amino acid residues. Interestingly, the BL230 belonged to genotype 2 of HGV at the level of a full-length sequence, although this was classified as genotype 3 by a phylogenetic analysis based on the 5' UTR sequence. The BL230 differed from previously reported HGV/hepatitis GB virus type C isolates by 12 to 13% of the nucleotide sequence and 4% of the amino acid sequence. Our data indicate a high prevalence of HGV in native Bolivians, and the major genotype of HGV was type 3.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Konomi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Miyoshi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: La Fuente Zerain
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Arakawa
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Abe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001483:Base Sequence; D001838:Bolivia / Q000453:epidemiology; D018067:Flaviviridae / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016751:Hepatitis E / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data