ABSTRACT
Ali types of hepatitis are quiet common in our population. Hepatitis G Virus [HGV] infection is relatively new viral infection and a little work is done on it. The objective of this study is to find out prevalence HGV infection in blood donors [Professional and Volunteer blood donors]. It is a comparative study. This study was done at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and KMDC, Karachi from 1[st] July 1995 to 30[th] June 1999. Three hundred seventy-one [371] blood donors were screened for HGV infection by Polymerase Chain Reaction [PCR] for HGV RNA. These blood donors includes 173 professionals and 198 volunteers. Three hundred seventy one [371] blood donors were screened for HGV with 05 [1.35%] positive cases. In professional donors group out 173 there were 04 [2.31%] positive for HGV where as in volunteer donor group only one [0.5%] was positive forHGV out of 198. All were male and highest positive cases for HGV were in 50-59 years age group in professional donors and 01[2.2%] in volunteer donor group. HGV infection is present in both professionals as well as volunteers donors with a ratio of 4:1. It is advisable to include HGV testing or screening mandatory for each blood bag before transfusing it to individual to minimize serious outcome of HGV infacture as people suffered from HBV, HCV and HIV