Hepatitis C Virus: Routes of Infection and Genotypes in a Cohort of Anti‐HCV‐Positive French Blood Donors

Abstract

In this population of anti-HCV-positive blood donors, nosocomial infection may be a route of HCV spread, but the main risk factor remains IVDU, particularly in young men. The transfusion policy will improve if predonation interviews of such young men are done with a specific and sensitive questionnaire.

Serotyping and Genotyping of Hepatitis C Virus in Belgium

“…We could determine the serotype of 55 (80.9%) of the 68 samples, which is comparable with some other studies reporting 81.2% and 83%, respectively [16,17]. Serotypes 1 and 3 were the most prevalent serotypes among the Belgian population, confirming another Belgian study [18] which enrolled fewer patients from Flanders, as well as other studies among the European population [19][20][21][22][23]. Although these studies established the genotype instead of the serotype, the results can be compared since results obtained through genotyping and serotyping carried out using SA1-6 show a good correlation [16,17,24].…”

“…We remark that another 33.3% (4/12) was sent by the same laboratory.Although this result is still higher than reported by others (e.g. 6.9% in France [21]), another Belgian study showed a prevalence of 10.6% [18]. The presence of cross-reactive antibodies probably also applies to type 6, which was not detected by genotyping, but in 14.7% by serotyping as part of multiple infections.…”

Hepatitis C Virus Infection Epidemiology among People Who Inject Drugs in Europe: A Systematic Review of Data for Scaling Up Treatment and Prevention

“…Nine cohort studies [100], [103], [105], [109], [113], [115], [117]–[119], and 21 cross-sectional studies tested HCV-RNA using PCR as a marker for chronic infection [81], [82], [90]–[99], [101], [102], [104], [106]–[108], [111], [112], [114], [116].…”

Risque infectieux lié à l’endoscopie digestive

“…Cependant, 3 études ont montré la persistance de l'HP dans l'endoscope après le nettoyage et la désinfection, détecté par culture dans deux études et par PCR dans la 3 ème [50][51][52]. Risque infectieux lié à l'endoscopie digestive élevée d'explorations endoscopiques digestives parmi les sujets séropositifs pour le VHC par rapport aux sujets témoins [63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70]. Cependant, l'interprétation de ces études reste difficile car elles se basent uniquement sur l'interrogatoire pour exclure les autres voies de transmission du virus.…”