Prevalence of hepatitis viruses among multi-transfused homogenous thalassaemia patients

Thalassaemic children being multi-transfused are at increased risk of paren terally transmissible hepatitis viruses and majority of them prone to devel op chronic liver disease. The study is designed to find out the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis D virus ( HDV) seromarkers and correlation of age, sex, number of transfusions and th e viral aetiology in thalassaemics of central India. One hundred and four t halassaemic children were subjected to clinical, biochemical and serologica l analysis for the HBV, HCV and HDV viruses. The chi (2) test was applied t o check the statistical significance of different variables. In the present study HBV markers were detected in 57 (56%) of the subjects while anti-HCV antibodies were observed in 21% of the patients. However, only four subjec ts were detected hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) reactive but none of t hem were reactive for anti-HDV antibodies. Forty patients had raised alanin e transaminase (ALT) levels and among them two were HBsAg reactive, 16 were anti-HBc antibody positive and 14 were anti-HCV reactive. The prevalence o f hepatitis viruses and raised ALT levels are found to be significantly ass ociated with the increasing age and number of blood units transfused to the m. The present findings also document the excellent contribution of stringe nt screening of blood units and HBV vaccination programme for containing th e HBV infection among thalassaemics. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. ALI rights reserved.