Our study showed that all the blood donors with isolated anti-HBc were negative for HBV-DNA, and occult HBV infection did not occur in the blood donors of this low prevalence region for HBV infection.

Children vaccinated against HBV during infancy may show low levels of antibody during adolescence. Our data suggest that a booster dose of vaccine may be required in low HBV endemic areas.

No abstract

The distribution of ABO and Rhesus blood group types was investigated in 984 randomly selected human T lymphotropic virus-1(HTLV-1)-infected blood donors from April 2004 to March 2007. A total of 1081 healthy controls admitted for blood donation in this period were enrolled in this study. Infected and control individuals were from the same region and their ABO/Rhesus blood group types were determined by the standard tube test technique. All blood samples were screened for HTLV-1 using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and positive samples were confirmed by Western blot (WB). The unmached analyses showed significant differences in frequency of the Aϩ blood group between healthy controls and HTLV-1-infected individuals (OR ϭ 0.8, 95% CI ϭ 0.66-0.97) and also a significant association was observed between these two groups(OR ϭ 1.42, 95% CI ϭ 1.1-1.99, p ϭ 0.021). No significant difference in blood group (AϪ, Bϩ, BϪ, Oϩ, OϪ, and ABϪ) was observed between cases and controls. It is the first report of an association between HTLV-1-infected patients and ABO/Rh blood groups in our literature review. Our results might suggest that the Aϩ blood group decrease the risk of HTLV-1 infection in healthy controls, while the ABϩ blood group is more frequent in HTLV-1 carriers and increases the risk of HTLV-1 infection. 1155

ing liver cirrhosis and/or liver cancer. Occult hepatitis C virus (OCV) infection is characterized by presence of HCV infection with undetectable hepatitis C antibodies or/and RNA in serum. Scanty information is available about the etiology of viral chronic liver diseases in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Therefore a study was carried out for detecting and genotyping of HCV & OCV in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) in UAE.Methods: A total of 142 serum samples from CLD patients and 139 healthy individuals were tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) & (RT-PCR) in determining HCv RNA & HBVDNA in serum samples. ELISA tests were used to detect HCV & HBV markers in patient sera. Liver biopsies were taken from CLD patients for immunohistochemistry((IHC) staining.Results: The results indicated the prevalence of HCV, Occult HCV, dual (HBV &HCV) and HBV infections at a rate of 43.7%, 27.5%, 19.0% and 12.7% in CLD patients respectively. Were as Healthy subjects were positive for anti body HCV and HBV-DNA at a rate of 3.6% and 2.2% respectively (P = 0.001). The most prevalent genotypes and subtypes of of HCV infection in CDL patients were genotype 4 (28.3%),Where as the prevalence of other genotypes,3a,1a, and 3b,1b, 5, 2, 3a & 3b, 2a and 1a & 1b were in the range of 25.3 to 1.3%. IHC results for HCV in biopsy tissues revealed that 84.6 (11/13) were positive. Histopathological studies of liver biopsies revealed that patients with HCV infection were more likely to have necroinflammatory activity and fibrosis than patients without HCV infection.Conclusion: Occult HCV is relatively frequent among patients with CLD in the UAE. Phylogenetic tree showed that genotype 4 appears to be the dominant genotype Where as the prevalence of other genotypes that circulating in UAE population.(1b, 5, 2, 3a & 3b, 2a and 1a &1b) were less dominant than genotype 4.