ABSTRACT
Blood samples from 190 patients that were anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) positive were genotyped and 165 were found to contain HCV-RNA. Genotyping was performed by PCR based on type-specific primers (117 isolates) and LiPA test (48 isolates) and verifying by sequencing. In Serbia, the most frequent genotype was 1b (49.1%), followed by genotype 3 (21.2%) and genotype 1a (8.5%). The frequency of genotypes 2 and 4 was below 5% and mixed infections were encountered in 9.1% of cases. Distribution of genotypes was monitored in different risk groups: intravenous drug abusers, patients under blood transfusion, patients with previous history of surgery, patients undergoing hemodialysis and those with unknown risk factors. Genotype distribution is essentially the same in all the groups, except for the patients undergoing hemodialysis and those with previous history of surgery where significant difference exists compared with the group with unknown route of transmission (p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively). There exists significant age-dependent genotype 3 distribution in Serbian population (p < 0.01).
Subject(s)
Hepacivirus/genetics , Hepatitis C/virology , Adolescent , Adult , Age Distribution , Aged , Child , DNA Primers , Genotype , Hepatitis C/blood , Hepatitis C/epidemiology , Humans , Middle Aged , Polymerase Chain Reaction , RNA, Viral , Risk Factors , Sequence Alignment , Yugoslavia/epidemiologyABSTRACT
In 614 HBsAg-positive Yugoslavian patients, radioimmunoassay testing for anti-delta showed the presence of this antibody in serum in 11.2%. Of the patients, 213 belonged to a risk group (i.v. drug users, hemophiliacs, hemodialysed patients and patients with posttransfusion hepatitis); a significant number of these patients (63; 29.6%) were found to have anti-delta. A second group was composed of 401 HBsAg-positive patients from the general population (patients with acute hepatitis B, with fulminant hepatitis B and patients with chronic HBV infection); delta infection was found only in six (1.5%). Immunohistochemical methods failed to demonstrate the delta antigen in the livers of 73 patients with chronic HBV infection. Testing the liver of 36 patients with fulminant hepatitis B for delta antigen demonstrated this reactivity in only one (2.8%) liver sample. Delta antigen was also found in the liver of a female patient who underwent biopsy in 1972. The results of this study suggest the HDV is not endemic in Yugoslavia; however, it is frequently found in patients at risk of blood exposure, primarily i.v. drug users.
