Prevalence of isolated hepatitis B core antibody among injection drug users in Central Province of Iran

Abstract

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.

The prevalence of isolated hepatitis B core antibody and its related risk factors among male injected drug users in Isfahan prisons

“…They included 153 IDUs of Arak, central province of Iran; in their study, they found that about 7.84% of subjects have isolated anti-HBc. [ 19 ]…”