HCV infection in voluntary donors and its influence on recruitment of donors in Chongqing area.
Blood donor recruitment models have changed from paid donors to employer-organized donors and to voluntary donors in China. Reports on the hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among voluntary blood donors in China have been rarely found at present. The prevalence of anti-HCV and genotypes among the first-time voluntary blood donors was investigated in Chongqing area of China. A total of 13,620 serum samples were collected from the first-time voluntary blood donors in Chongqing, China. Anti-HCV antibody was tested by ELISA. The Core/E2 region of HCV RNA from HCV seropositive samples was amplified by RT-PCR for genotyping. The results indicated that the prevalence of anti-HCV averaged 0.49% (67/13,620), and the highest rate (0.86%) was obtained in the group aged 40 to 49. A higher prevalence was observed among the more educated donors, and metropolitan donors. The ratios of following genotypes 1b, 2a, 3a and 3b were 4 (18%), 5 (23%), 9 (41%) and 4 (18%) in all the 22 samples respectively. Genotype 3 (3a and 3b) was the predominant genotype. In conclusion, the prevalence of anti-HCV was low among the population of voluntary blood donors in Chonqing area. The genotyping results showed the possibility of presence of druggies among the voluntary blood donors. Therefore, more attention should be paid to exclude those high-risk persons from the volunteers.
Department of Transfusion, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China. shumingzhao@yahoo.com
Shu-Ming
SM
Zhao
Tian-Lun
TL
Jiang
Ru-Qing
RQ
Li
Feng-Xiang
FX
Gao
Ling
L
Lu
Hao-Qiang
HQ
Zheng
Jian
J
Hu
Ya-Han
YH
Fan
Bing
B
Li
Rui-Qing
RQ
Xiao
Khudoyakov
K
Yury
D001782:Blood Donors; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005838:Genotype; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies
D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies