A prospective study on HGV infection after transfusion in pediatric hematological children

In order to delineate the infectious status of HGV in pediatric hematological patients and its clinical features, 38 children were studied for HGV by reverse transcription nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nPCR). The overall positive rate was 23.68%; the positive rate in 1-10 time transfusion recipients (mean 3.26 times) was 3.70% while in over 10 time transfusion recipients (mean 20.09 times) was 72.73%. A statistically significant difference was found between the two groups (P < 0.001). All HGV positive children showed diminished immunity and most were single HGV infection with no clinical and biochemical evidences of acute hepatitis. Our results suggest that HGV is one of the main causes of post-transfusion hepatic virus infection and the prevalence is related to transfusion times. Hematological malignancy maybe the most susceptible confluence of HGV.