Letter to the Editor Vox Sang 1992;63:237

Albert M . Lerna Edmundo A . Cox Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar

We tested blood donors in Qatar for antibodies to the hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV). The test subjects (n = 3,352) were non-remunerated volunteers who gave blood at the Hamad Medical Corporation Blood Bank in Doha, Qatar, between June 1990 and January 1991. The group comprised individuals of 37 nationalities (93.5% males and 6.5% females). Thirty-four percent of the donors (n = 1.142) were Qatari nationals. In addition to anti-HCV, we tested for antibodiesto the hepatitisB coreantigen (anti-HBc) and measured alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels. The ALT levels were measured on an auotmated analyser (Hitachi-705, Boehringer Mannheim G m b H , Mannheim, FRG), and the viral markers were detected by enzyme immunoassay with commercially available kits (Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, Ill., USA). The blood samples were tested on the day that they were collected, or else the sera were frozen at -80 "C and tested within 24 h of donation. Ninety-four donors (92 males and 2 females) tested were repeatedly reactive for anti-HCV, giving a crude precalence rate of 2.8%. The anti-HCV prevalence among the Qatari nationalswas0.4%0.Thecrude rate for anti-HCVprevalence among blood donors in Qatar is higher than rates reported from the UnitedStates[l, 2]aiidEurope[3-5], butit is only slightly more than half the rate reported from neighbouring Saudi Arabia [6]. Furthermore, the anti-HCV prevalence in Qatar reflects the heterogeneity of the donor population and is disproportionately influenced by donors of certain nationalities. For example, while the nationals of one of the North African countries constituted 10.5% of the group tested, they accounted for 54.25% of the anti-HCV-positive samples. The antiHCV prevalence among blood donors of Qatari nationality, on the other hand, compares

Hepatitis C Antibodies among Blood Donors in Qatar

favourably with the rates found among American and European blood donors. We sought correlations between the surrogate tests for non-A non-B hepatitis (NANBH) and anti-HCV (table 1). Both the anti-HCV-positive and the anti-HCV-negative groups of donors had a relatively high prevalence of anti-HBc and elevated ALT (>45 IU) levels, but the prevalence of those surrogate markers for NANBH was significantly higher among the anti-HCV-positive group (p

Hepatitis C antibodies among blood donors in Qatar.

Letter to the Editor Vox Sang 1992;63:237 Albert M . Lerna Edmundo A . Cox Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar We tested blood donors in Qatar fo...
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