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Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 48(4), 1993, pp. 581-584
Copyright © 1993 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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*Hepatitis C
*Liver Diseases

Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Chronic Liver Disease in Somalia

Antonio Aceti, Gloria Taliani, Roberta Bruni, Osman S. Sharif, Kadija A. Moallin, Domenico Celestino, Giorgio Quaranta AND Antonio Sebastiani
Institute of the Clinic of Tropical and Infectious Diseases, La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy; Faculty of Medicine, Somali National University, Mogadishu, Somalia

To assess the role of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in liver disease in Somalia, antibody to HCV (anti-HCV) was studied by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) in 110 patients with chronic liver diseases, in 309 healthy adults, in 179 institutionalized subjects with a high prevalence of intestinal parasites and Schistosoma haematobium, and in 287 children with diseases other than hepatitis. According to the RIBA test, anti-HCV was present in three healthy adults (0.97%), in four institutionalized individuals (2.2%), but in none of the children. The prevalence of anti-HCV was 4.8% in patients with hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive chronic liver diseases and 20.6% in patients with HBsAg-negative chronic liver diseases. Thus, HCV infection appears to play a minor role in HBsAg-positive liver disease in Somalia but may be an important factor in HBsAg-negative chronic liver disease. The low anti-HCV prevalence in individuals with no hepatic disorders is consistent with the fact that HCV does not spread by nonpercutaneous transfer. We found also a large proportion of both patients with hepatic disease and institutionalized individuals who tested positive by ELISA but not confirmed by RIBA. However, the likelihood of a true positive result increases proportionally with the ELISA value; thus, in most cases a low ELISA value probably represents a false-positive reaction, while a high ELISA value probably represents a true positive reaction.






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Copyright © 1993 by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.