Prevalence of hepatitis G virus and characterization of viral genome in Ghana

The prevalence of hepatitis G virus (HGV) infection was investigated in 85 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected and 30 uninfected individuals' sera obtained from Ghanaians. HGV RNA in serum was identified by st nested reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using primers deri ved from the 5'-noncoding region. We also tested for hepatitis C virus by n ested RT-PCR and for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) by passive hemaggl utination method. HGV RNA was detected in 17 of 85 (20%) HIV sere-positive and three of 30 (10%) sere-negative Ghanaians, respectively. The prevalence of HGV infection was much greater than hepatitis C (0.9%) and hepatitis B virus (7.8%) infections in the present study. Ninety four percent of HGV in fected patients were seronegative for hepatitis B and C virus infections. T he nine different Ghanaian isolates in the 5'-untranslated region of the HG V genome had one nucleotide deletion at the same position when compared wit h other HGV isolates. Phylogenetic analysis showed that ail Ghanaian isolat es belonged to type 1 (West Africa type) of the HGV genotypes, Moreover, we determined nearly full-length nucleotide sequence of the HGV genome (denot ed HGV-GA128) recovered from a Ghanaian infected with HIV. The HGV-GA128 wa s composed of 9231 nucleotides and had a single open reading framer encodin g 2843 amino acid residues. This isolate differed from previously reported HGV/GBV-C isolates by 10-15% of the nucleotide sequence and 2-5% of the ami no acid sequence. Our data indicate a high prevalence of HGV, especially ge notype 1, in Ghana. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reser ved.