LOW PREVALENCE OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS-INFECTION AMONG DENTISTS IN TAIWAN

To evaluate whether hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an occupation al hazard in the dental environment, serum samples collected in 1990-1 991 from 461 dentists were tested for the antibody to HCV (anti-HCV) w ith first- and second-generation HCV enzyme-linked immunoassays (EIAs) . Five of the 363 (1.38%) serum samples were reactive by the first-gen eration (C100-3) HCV EIA. Of the same 363 samples and the other 98 sam ples, 3 (0.65%) were reactive by the second-generation test. Of the 5 first-generation EIA reactive samples, only the 2 samples showing an a bsorbance of greater than 2.0 were also reactive to the second-generat ion EIA. The other 3 low-absorbance samples became negative and were r egarded as false positives. Among the 358 samples negative by the firs t-generation EIA, 1 was reacted by the second-generation EIA. Those sa mples positive by the first- and/or second-generation HCV EIA were ana lyzed further by cDNA/polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect the pr esence of HCV RNA. Only 1 of the 5 first-generation EIA reactive sampl es was positive by PCR, but 2 of the 3 second-generation EIA reactive samples were PCR positive. These results are comparable to the anti-HC V prevalence of healthy blood donors (0.95% by C100-3 assay) and pregn ant women (0.63% by recombinant immunoblot assay). We conclude that th e prevalence of HCV infection among dentists in Taiwan is low, and the re is no increased risk of HCV infection through the practice of denti stry, at least in our area.