Hepatitis C virus infection in blood donors in Egypt

A study was carried out on 90 serum samples from non-professional blood donors to find out the relative prevalence of HBV and HCV among those blood donors. Results demonstrated overall positivity rate of 14.4% for anti-HCV by RIBA test. The percentage of reactive sera was 6% for the age group of 20 to below 30 years, and 37.5% in those aged above 30 years, and this difference was statistically significant. Considering the combined reactivity of the tested 90 sera for anti-HBs and anti-HCV, the results showed that 41.1% of the sera were positive for anti-HBs; 10% reacted positively with both anti-HBs and anti-HCV, and 4.4% of the sera were positive for anti-HCV only. The high prevalence of anti-HCV in this study (14.4%) exceeds that reported in other countries, and is comparable with that of Saeed and associates (1991). These results may indicate endemicity of HCV in Egypt and/or a possible role of the endemic schistosomiasis. On the basis of data, suggesting that anti-HCV reflects persistent infection rather than immunity, screening for anti-HCV should be included in all blood transfusion services to exclude HCV which is responsible for 90% of PTH (Van der Poel et al., 1990; Weiner et al., 1990; and Esteban et al., 1991). The remarkably high seroprevalence of anti-HCV among Egyptian volunteer blood donors, which has not so far been reported from other countries, should be thoroughly studied. This should cover many aspects including large epidemiological studies, factors pertinent to Egypt as schistosomiasis, and other possible factors that might enhance HCV transmission in Egyptian population. High risk groups as the polytransfused and renal dialysis patients should be studied. Needless to say that, an accurate measure of HCV prevalence depends on specificity and sensitivity of the employed laboratory diagnostic tests; development of new tests for the detection of antibodies to HCV, together with development of tests for other markers such as HCV antigen and the polymerase chain reaction to detect HCV DNA in blood, will be of great help.