PREVALENCE OF HEPATITIS-G VIRUS IN HEPATITIS-C VIRUS (HCV)-INFECTED PATIENTS AND IN HCV-CONTAMINATED INTRAVENOUS IMMUNOGLOBULIN PRODUCTS

Hepatitis GB virus C/hepatitis G virus (HGV) is an RNA virus, which ap pears to be transmitted by parenteral exposure to contaminated blood a nd blood products, and may be associated with clinical hepatitis in hu mans. The prevalence of HGV was investigated in hepatitis C virus (HCV )-infected patients, and (HCV)-contaminated immune globulin intravenou s products (IGIV), manufactured prior to the introduction of viral ina ctivation processing, and in recipients of these lots, Nested primers, specific for the 5' non-coding region of HGV, were designed and used to test 100 chronic HCV patients, 10 HCV RNA-positive IGIV lots and 36 of the recipients of these products. Hepatitis G virus specificity of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products was confirmed by sequenc ing a number of the amplified products and comparing the results with the published prototype sequence for HGV RNA. HGV RNA was detected in 23 of the 100 (23%) HCV-infected patients, The level of alanine aminot ransferase (ALT) was lower in HCV-HGV coinfected patients than those w ith HCV infection alone. Hence, the severity of HCV infections is not influenced by HGV. Two of the 10 (20%) IGIV lots tested positive for H GV RNA; however, none of the serum samples from recipients of IGIV con tained detectable HGV RNA although many were infected with HCV. This s uggests that the transmission of HGV RNA from IGIV to the recipients i s less efficient than that seen for HCV.