Phylogenetic investigation for the risk of hepatitis C virus transmission to surgical and dental patients.
Blood loss during treatment carries a potential risk for the transmission of blood-borne pathogens in hospital patients. To determine whether nosocomial transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV) occurs in surgical wards and dental hospitals, we tested anti-HCV antibodies and HCV RNA in sera from these patients and analysed the hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) sequence of HCV phylogenetically in the HCV RNA-positive patients. Five of 83 patients from a surgical ward were positive for HCV RNA, and six patients from one dental hospital and nine patients from a second were found to be positive for HCV RNA during the examination period. The HVR1 sequences were amplified from these patients' serum, and after subcloning, multiple clones of the HVR1 sequence from each patient were determined. The phylogenetic analysis of these sequences showed that HVR1 species from each patient could be classified into one to three genetic clusters of HVR1 quasi-species and that these clusters were independent of each other among patients. Thus, there was no evidence of HCV transmission in our study, and unrecognized transmission of HCV may be a rare event in surgical and dental patients at university hospitals.
Enomoto
A
A
Department of Pathology, Nihon University School of Medicine, 30-1, Ooyaguchikami-machi, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-8610, Japan.
Yoshino
S
S
Hasegawa
H
H
Komatsu
T
T
Sasahara
H
H
Takano
S
S
Esumi
M
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D003796:Dental Service, Hospital; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000097:blood / Q000635:transmission* / Q000821:virology; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013503:Surgery Department, Hospital; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*
C400562:HVR1 protein, Hepatitis C virus; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies; D012367:RNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins