| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
|
| Year : 2018 | Volume
: 12
| Issue : 2 | Page : 112-116 |
|
|
Experience of hepatitis C virus seroprevalence and its genomic diversity among transfusion-dependent thalassemia patients in a transfusion center
Kallol Kumar Bhattacharyya1, Aritra Biswas2, Debanjali Gupta2, Provash C Sadhukhan2
1 Thalassaemia Control Unit, Imambara Sadar Hospital, Chinsurah, Hooghly, West Bengal, India
2 ICMR Virus Unit, I.D. and B.G. Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Correspondence Address:
Kallol Kumar Bhattacharyya
Bhattacharyya, Thalassaemia Control Unit, Imambara Sadar Hospital, Chinsurah, Hooghly, West Bengal
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ajts.AJTS_73_17
|
|
|
Introduction: One of the most common blood-borne transfusion-transmitted diseases is hepatitis C. Patients with a history of multiple blood transfusions are significantly at a greater risk of infection by contaminated blood and blood products. Beta thalassemia major is one such condition where repeated blood transfusions are required for patient management.
Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted to investigate the serological prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV), its viremia, and genotype distribution with clinical parameters among multitransfused thalassemic individuals. In this study, a total of 300 patients were screened to detect anti-HCV antibody in serum, along with liver function parameters and genotyping.
Results: Seventy-five (25%) patients were found to be HCV positive by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Among them, 49 (65%) were HCV RNA positive having a significant viral load in their blood and rest 26 (35%) were below detection level, which signify auto clearance of the virus in those patients. According to our study, HCV genotype 3 was the major circulating strain (92.59%) followed by genotype 1. Liver enzymes, such as alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and total bilirubin, were significantly elevated among HCV seroreactive individuals.
Conclusions: This study clearly indicates that the incidence of transfusion-transmitted hepatitis C is high in thalassemia patients, but actual scenario of HCV viremia can only be found by HCV RNA qualitative and quantitative detection method and not by ELISA, is a major concern for this high-risk group of population. |
|
|
|
| [FULL TEXT] [PDF]* |
|
 |
|
