HEPATITIS-B AND HEPATITIS-C VIRUS-INFECTION IN HBSAG-NEGATIVE ALCOHOLICS WITHOUT IV DRUG-ABUSE OR PREVIOUS BLOOD-TRANSFUSIONS

The presence of low level hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C viru s (HCV) infections was assessed in serum from 67 hepatitis B surface a ntigen (HBsAg) negative alcoholics from France without previous blood transfusions and/or i.v. drug abuse. It was found that 19/67 (28%) of this alcoholic population had past exposure to HBV as shown by the pre sence of antibodies to the surface (anti-HBs), core (anti-HBc) and e ( anti-HBe) antigens. Two patients (3%) had low level circulating encaps idated HBV as determined by the highly sensitive capture PCR technique . Previous exposure to HCV was assessed by three serological tests: th e first generation ELISA (C-100-3), a second generation recombinant im munoblot assay (RIBA II) and a radioimmunoassay based on highly conser ved HCV core peptide sequences; 7/67 (10.5%) were found to be reactive in at least two serological tests. Among 64 serum samples available f or RNA PCR testing, 6 were found to be HCV RNA positive (9.4%). Taken together, 8/67 (13%) of this alcoholic population were positive for HC V by RNA PCR and/or at least two serological tests. We conclude, that even in the absence of known risk factors and HBsAg negativity, patien ts with alcoholic liver disease have a significantly higher prevalence of markers of past or ongoing HBV or HCV infection than healthy indiv iduals.