Prevalence of infection with hepatitis C virus in Venezuela, as assessed with an immuno-assay based on synthetic peptides

Information on infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) in South America is s carce. The seroprevalences of antibodies to HCV among urban, rural and Amer indian populations from Venezuela, and the genotypes of the HCV isolates re covered, were therefore determined. A total of 2592 sera were tested with a n immuno-assay which was developed in-house and based on synthetic peptides . Each reactive sample was then re-tested, using other enzyme immuno-assays and a reverse-transcription, nested PCR, and any sample confirmed positive (in any test) was considered HCV-positive. Genotypes were determined by an alysis of RFLP. Overall, 39 (1.5%) of the samples were found HCV positive. The results of t he immuno-assays indicated that the seroprevalence of HCV markers among the Amerindians investigated (23/1082, or 2.1%) was significantly higher than that among the other subjects (16/1510, or 1.1%; P = 0.02). No such differe nce was observed in the numbers of subjects confirmed positive by PCR, howe ver (6/1082 v. 10/1510), and some of the anti-HCV reactivity observed among Amerindians may have been the result of cross-reactivity with parasitic in fections. The relative low prevalence of active HCV infection (16/2582, or 0.6%) and the HCV genotypes observed (mainly genotype 1) are in agreement w ith the results of previous studies indicating that HCV is not autochthonou s to South America. However, it is clear that the virus may now be found ev en in isolated Amerindian populations. The in-house, synthetic-peptide-base d immuno-assay seems to be a valuable tool for epidemiological studies.