a preliminary report on prevalence of antibody response to gbv-c, e2 protein in iranian blood donors and multitrans-fused patients

background : to analyze serologic markers of hepatitis g virus (gbv-c) infection in iranian blood donors and two major groups of multitransfused patients, hemophiliacs and thalassemics. methods :nine hundred and five serum samples collected from the volunteer blood donors and two patient groups under the study were tested for the presence of antibodies to the gbv-c antigen (anti e2 ) by an elisa assay .those found positive for anti- e2 were also tested for possible exposure to hcv by detecting anti- hcv in their sera. levels of alt were also tested to evaluate impact on liver function. results: approximately 8.6% of the volunteer blood donors were found positive for anti-e2 .the prevalence rate in hemophili­acs was 41.4 % and in thalassemia patients was 33.4% , which was significantly ( p < 0.05) higher than donors. how­ever, the prevalence rate among the two high risk groups was not statistically significant. conclusion: a large number of the healthy blood donors in iran have been exposed to the gbv-c. the significantly higher lev­els seen in the multitransfused patients can be regarded as an important route of transmission. it seems that no evidence of liver damage in individuals exposed confirming that gbv-c is not a hepatitis virus.