NOVEL HEPATITIS AGENTS - THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES - AN OVERVIEW

A new virus with genomic organization similar to that of the family Fl aviviridae was identified in patients with viral hepatitis and designa ted hepatitis G virus (HGV) or hepatitis GB virus C (GBV-C). HGV/GBV-C can be transmitted by blood and results in persistent infection, as s hown in patients with posttransfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis, in trans fusion recipients, and in donors of blood received by HGV-positive pat ients. The parenteral route of transmission of HGV/GBV-C infection was confirmed in experimentally infected chimpanzees. Epidemiologic studi es of sporadic, community-acquired viral hepatitis have not indicated an association between HGV/GBV-C and acute non A-E hepatitis. Thus, th e disease association of this new virus remains unconfirmed and its ro le in the etiology of acute and chronic hepatitis is unclear. The expe rimental model of HGV/GBV-C infection may define the biology of the vi rus replication.