Schistosomiasis as a possible risk factor for acquiring hepatitis C virus [HCV] infection among Saudis

Risk factors for acquiring hepatitis C virus [HCV] infection have been elucidated in many developed countries but the picture is still not clear in many Middle Eastern Countries including Saudi Arabia. Aim-To investigate possible risk factors for acquiring HCV among Saudis. Methods-Various demographic and medical risk factors that might be associated with the spread of HCV among Saudis were investigated. The population studied included 20 anti-HCV-positive with chronic liver disease [CLD], 30 anti-HCV-positive patients without CLD and 272 anti-FICV-negative Saudi blood donors. All people investigated were of the same age group [>40 years of age]. Results-None of the demographic parameters studied [type of job, type of housing, education] was found to be significantly associated with acquiring HCV infection among our Saudi patients, On the other hand up to 40% of the anti-Hey-positive patients and irrespective of the condition of liver disease had a history of surgery, and 25% of them had a history of multiple injections. Furthermore, at least 20% of our anti-HCV-positive patients had a history of schistosomiasis which is significantly higher than schistosomiasis among the blood donors [Pc0.005]. Conclusion-In addition to blood and blood products, schistosomiasis seems to be a possible risk factor for acquiring HCV among the Saudi population. The association between schistosomiasis and enhancement of HCV infection need to be further elucidated

comparative study for screening and confirmation of antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus

Four commercially available ELISA kits and three confirmatory tests were evaluated for human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] screening and confirmation on sera from four groups of Saudi patients: [1] 1000 blood domors; [2] 123 patients at high-risk for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome [AIDS] [20 hemophiliacs, 80 thalassemics, and 23 patients with generalized lymphadenopathy]; [3] 200 carrieres of hepatitis B surface antigen; and [4] 170 patients attending the veneral disease [VD] clinic. In all four groups of patients, reactivity was most common with the Abboutt enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA] screening kit compared with ELISA screening kits from three other manufacturers. A high rate o reactivity, particularly with the Abbott ELISA [13/170] was seen with patients from the VD clinic. Only eight sample were reactive by all four ELISA screening assays, however, and of these, only three were definitely positive as judged by a confirmatory immunofluorescent test, the Abbott ELISA confirmatory test, and the Western blot. The variability of these results strongly indicates that retesting is necessary to establish persistent reactivity followed by confirmatory testing. Repeat testing by a different commercial ELISA assay dose not replace the essential confirmatory step

HBsAg and anti-HBsAg detection: results of comparative testing in HBV endemic area

When 2139 saudi blood samples were screened for hepatitis B surface antigen [HBsAg] by reverse passive haemagglutination [RHPA] the prevalence rate was 4.3%: 54 samples were inconclusive for the presence of HBsAg and 31 samples were HBsAg positive only at a serum dilution of 1:40. These inconclusive low positive samples along with 1000 randomly chosen HBsAg negative [RPHA] samples were retested for HBsAg by radioimmunoassay [RIA] and enzyme immunoassay [EIA]. The samples which were HBsAg negative [RIA] were also tested for antibody to HBsAg [anti-HBs] by passive haemagglutination [PHA], RIA and EIA Comparative testing showed RPHA and PHA to be the last sensitive for the detection of HBsAg and anti-HBs respectively while RIA was the most sensitive followed closely by EIA in the detection of both the antigen and the antibody