Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

High prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection and predominance of genotype 4 in rural gabon

2008; Wiley; Volume: 80; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/jmv.21252

1096-9071

Guy-Roger Ndong-Atome, Maria Makuwa, Odile Ouwe‐Missi‐Oukem‐Boyer, Oliver G. Pybus, Michel Branger, Simon Le Hello, S.B. Boye‐Cheik, Françoise Brun‐Vézinet, Mirdad Kazanji, Pierre Roques, Sylvie Bisser,

Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment

Abstract Hepatitis C (HCV) molecular epidemiology is documented poorly in central African countries. In response to this, a population‐based study of 319 consenting adults resident in a remote village of Gabon was undertaken (mean age: 38 years; age range: 13–85+; sex ratio: 0.74). Screening for anti‐HCV antibodies was performed using ELISA and recombinant immunoblot assay. Seropositive samples were assessed further with viral load and genotyping techniques. Sixty‐six (20.7%) individuals were HCV seropositive. Viral loads ranged from 600 to 24.9 million IU/ml (median: 372,500). Seroprevalence and viral loads increased significantly with age ( P < 10 −5 and P < 0.003, respectively). HCV sequences of the 5′UTR genome region were obtained from 60 (90.9%) samples and NS5B region sequences were obtained from 22 (36.6%) samples. All strains belonged to subtypes of genotype 4: 4e (72.7%), 4c (13.6%), 4p (4.5%), 4r (4.5%) and one unclassified genotype 4 strain. Evolutionary analysis of the subtype 4e sequences indicates a period of raised transmission during the early twentieth century. J. Med. Virol. 80:1581–1587, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.