Prevalence of GBV-C/hepatitis G virus viremia among chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C and hemodialysis patients in Turkey

To the Editor: The newly discovered hepatitis G virus (HGV) or GBV-C are isolates of the same virus, which is a single-stranded RNA virus of positive polarity with 9362 nucleotides.1 It can be transmitted via blood transfusion and intravenous drug use, sexually, and from an infected mother to her child.2 High prevalences of GBV-C/HGV have been found in subjects with frequent parenteral exposure and in groups at high risk of exposure to blood and blood products, including drug abusers, hemodialysis patients, multitransfused individuals and haemophiliacs.3 Due to shared risk factors, coinfection of GBV-C/HGV with hepatitis B (HBV) or hepatitis C (HCV) viruses in chronically infected patients has been reported at frequencies ranging from 10 to 25%.4 Because the prevalence of GBV-C/HGV is unclear in Turkish population, we sought analyze the prevalence of GBV-C/HGV-RNA in the sera of different groups in the Turkish population. Three hundred and ten Turkish serum samples classified into four groups were studied. Sera of 85 hemodialysis patients, 80 chronic hepatitis B patients, 75 chronic hepatitis C patients, and 70 healthy persons (control group) were tested for the presence of GBV-C/HGV-RNA. The control group included apparently healthy individuals who had participated in occupational screening for a randomly selected viral hepatitis marker. Thirty-seven were male and 33 female with a mean age of 42.5±11.8 years (range, 20–65 years). None were positive for anti-HCV or for HBsAg. RNA was extracted from 150 μl of serum using the Nucleospin Virus Kit (Biogene, Kimbolton, UK). Real-time PCR was performed using primer pairs and a probe located in the 5′ untranslated region (5′UTR) of GBV-C/HGV-RNA using the ABI Prism 7700 Sequence Detector System (Perkin Elmer, Foster City, Calif.). Data were analysed by Fisher’ s exact test. A P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. GBV-C/HGV-RNA was detected in 52 of the 310 sera tested with an overall prevalence of 17%. The highest prevalence was encountered among chronic hepatitis B patients (28%) followed by hemodialysis patients (24%), chronic hepatitis C patients (6%), whereas the lowest prevalence rate of 4% was detected among healthy persons (Table 1). HGV was significantly more frequent in chronic hepatitis B patients, hemodialysis patients, and chronic hepatitis C patients than in healthy persons (P<0.05).