A serological study of hepatitis C infection in plasmapheresis donors

An epidemic of parenterally transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis (PT-NANBH) occurred in plasmapheresis donors in Guan County, Hebei Province, China, in 1985. PT-NANBH was diagnosed by epidemiological studies and serological exclusion of HAV, HBV, CMV and EBV infections. Recently, 163 sera samples of 108 patients with PT-NANBH and 65 sera samples of 49 cases with elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels collected during the epidemic were tested by anti-HCV EIA (Chiron C100). The positive rates of anti-HCV in these two groups were 89.8% (97/108) and 93.9% (46/49), averaging 90.8%. The figures increased with the course of illness and persistance of ALT elevation, i.e., 17.6% and 55.6% within 1 month, 88.9% and 87.5% at 6 months and 100% and 100% after 2 years. Five patients with PT-NANBH and 1 with elevated ALT levels were followed up for 3 to 4 years. We demonstrated that anti-HCV remained positive after the disease had resolved and ALT levels had normalized.