VIRUS INACTIVATION AND PREVALENCE OF GBV-C IN HEMOPHILIACS

A new putative hepatitis virus has recently been discovered and termed GB virus C (GBV-C). We investigated the prevalence of this virus amon g 50 haemophiliacs treated with non-virus-inactivated clotting factor concentrates prior to 1985 and 21 haemophiliacs treated exclusively wi th virus-inactivated clotting factor concentrates. In the first group the prevalence of GBV-C based on PCR and ELISA was 46%, In the second group the prevalence of GBV-C was similar to that of healthy blood don ors (5%). We therefore conclude that GBV-C is reliably inactivated by modern virucidal methods such as vapour heating, pasteurization and tr eatment with solvent/detergent mixtures.