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DISCOVERY OF HEPATITIS G VIRUS.

An international team has identified the causative agent of some cases of post-transfusion and community- acquired hepatitis that are not caused by hepatitis viruses A through E.

Identified by molecular biological techniques, hepatitis G virus (HGV) is an RNA virus that is distantly related to hepatitis C virus, and a closer relative to several animal hepatitis viruses.

Preliminary estimates indicate that HGV may cause about 20 percent of post-transfusion hepatitis cases and about 15 percent of community-acquired hepatitis cases that are not caused by hepatitis viruses A through E. Approximately 20 percent of patients with acute hepatitis C virus infection are coinfected with HGV.

HGV infection can lead to chronic viral hepatitis with cirrhosis, although the frequency of this occurrence is undetermined. Viremia can persist for up to nine years, and often even after initial liver function abnormalities have returned to normal. When blood samples from 779 consecutive volunteer blood donors with normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels were screened, 1.7 percent were HGV-positive; the risk of acquiring HGV via transfusion is undetermined.

Comment: Discovery of hepatitis G virus will almost surely lead to further improvements in safety of the blood supply, and will help explain unusual cases of acute and chronic hepatitis that are not associated with hepatitis viruses A through E.

— AL Komaroff

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine February 23, 1996

Citation(s):

Linnen J et al. Molecular cloning and disease association of hepatitis G virus: a transfusion-transmissible agent. Science 1996 Jan 26 271 505-508.

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