GB Virus C epidemiology in denmark: Different routes of transmission in children and low‐ and high‐risk adults

Abstract

With the demonstration of an effect of GBV-C infection on the outcome of HIV infection, it has become important to understand the epidemiology of GBV-C. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence in high- and low-risk populations. The following populations were tested: school children, 9 and 15 years of age (n = 901), blood donors (n = 5,203), hospital employees (n = 1,432), and prisoners and injecting drug users (n = 447). In-house RT-PCR for GBV-CRNA was used together with a commercial ELISA for anti-E2 (Boehringer, Germany). In addition, questionnaires for risk factors for transmission and serological tests for HIV and hepatitis were applied. The overall prevalence of GBV-CRNA was 1.4% among children, 2.2% among blood donors, 2.2% among hospital employees, 12.5% among non-injecting prisoners, and 34.9% among drug injectors. Correspondingly anti-E2 was found in 0.3%, 12.3%, 25.0%, and 42.7%. Among hospital employees, independent risk factors for GBV-C were professions with blood exposure and sexual risk partners. Among prisoners and drug users, injecting and a sexual risk index were associated independently with GBV-C. Based on these results, the following hypothesis is suggested: GBV-C is transmitted frequently at birth or early childhood and this leads to chronic infection in most cases. Sexual transmission is the most important route of transmission in the adult population but this infection is usually transient. Blood borne transmission plays a role among health care workers and injecting drug users and GBV-C should be further evaluated as a surrogate marker for professional blood exposure.

Prevalence and impact of GBV-C, SEN-V and HBV occult infections in HIV–HCV co-infected patients on HCV therapy

“…HBV DNA was not screened in liver samples (which can often be present despite negativity in blood [25]) because of technical limitations and the uncertainties regarding the physiopathological relevance of positive liver HBV DNA in association without blood replication. The prevalence of GBV-C infection in HIV-HCV coinfected patients in our study and in two others [26,27] was 30-36%, which is close to that observed in IVDUs (39-45% [28,29]) and higher than that reported in studies mainly including homosexual men (14-37% [30,31]). The prevalence we observed may have been slightly underestimated since only one pair of primers was used instead of the two recommended by others [32].…”

Prevalence and correlates of GB virus C infection in HIV‐infected and HIV‐uninfected pregnant women in Bangkok, Thailand

“…As IDU and having tattoos were associated with the highest odds of GBV-C infection, parenteral transmission may be more efficient than sexual transmission. Since there were only 25 IDUs in our cohort (<2% of study subjects), all of whom were HIV-infected, this risk estimate may be somewhat unstable, but was similar to that observed in other cohorts [Christensen et al, 2003]. However, sexual risk behaviors were more common than parenteral risks in our study population, and a high proportion of women in high sexual risk categories were also GBV-C infected, including commercial sex workers, women reporting more than 10 lifetime sexual partners, and women reporting first intercourse at <15 years of age.…”

“…Studies of the prevalence and correlates of GBV-C infection among different populations have identified many risk factors for GBV-C infection, including, IDU [Katayama et al, 1997;Saganuma et al, 1998;Tan et al, 1999;Lefrere et al, 1999a;Christensen et al, 2003;Vanhems et al, 2003], receipt of blood transfusion [Stark et al, 1999;Tan et al, 1999;Henrichsen et al, 2002], increased number of sexual partners [Wu et al, 1997;Bjorkman et al, 2001;Ribeiro-dos-Santos et al, 2002], having had sex with other men [Stark et al, 1999;Lefrere et al, 1999a;Rey et al, 2000;Berzsenyi et al, 2005], snorting cocaine [Tan et al, 1999], imprisonment [Tan et al, 1999], history of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) [Tan et al, 1999;Bjorkman et al, 2001], healthcare work [Christensen et al, 2003], hospitalization for medical procedures such as delivery and abortion [Lefrere et al, 1999a], endoscopy [Bjorkman et al, 2001], and bronchoscopy [Vanhems et al, 2003], as well as a history of travel to Africa [Lefrere et al, 1999a], schistosomiasis [Hassoba et al, 1997], and exposure to blood-sucking insects [Ribeiro-dos-Santos et al, 2002]. Using a study cohort of 1,387 HIV-infected and 332 HIV-uninfected pregnant women drawn from three perinatal studies in Bangkok, associations between GBV-C RNA and antibody prevalence with demographic, medical, and risk behavior variables were examined to determine the risk factors for GBV-C infection and clearance.…”

The prevalence of GB virus C/hepatitis G virus RNA among healthy and HCV-infected Catalan children

“…Unfortunately, we were not able to test the mothers to confirm perinatal transmission. Besides, other transmission routes (i.e., sexual or through breast-feeding) for GBV-C infection that have been suggested [2] could not be ruled out either.…”