Because the majority of patients with chronic hepatitis C do not respond to interferon, alternative treatments need to be established. Several lines of evidence suggest that iron depletion is beneficial for such patients. Thus, gastrectomized patients with a reduced capacity for iron absorption might have an advantage in treatment of their liver damage over patients with intact gastrointestinal...

background: unsafe transfusion practices put patients at high risk of transfusion transmissible infections. we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of transfusion transmissible infections (including human immunodeficiency virus [hiv] 1 and 2, hepatitis b virus [hbv], hepatitis c virus (hcv) and syphilis) during a period of 18 months among blood donors in the blood bank of lady hardinge medical coll...

Background: In spite of available, and sensitive screening assay for detection of hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg), occasional cases of post-transfusion hepatitis B virus infection are still observed. The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence of positive anti hepatitis B core (anti-HBc) and presence of HBV-DNA in serum sample of healthy blood donors negative for both HB...

The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is relatively low in childhood, with anti-HCV prevalence rates of 0.1-0.4% in the Western world. To date, blood transfusion has been the principal route of acquisition of HCV in children, but there is evidence that vertical transmission is overtaking it. The overall risk of vertical perinatal transmission of HCV is about 5%, although it increa...

OBJECTIVE To describe the process used to notify pediatric patients who received transfusions of blood or blood products at our institution before donor blood was routinely screened for antibodies to HIV (1985) and hepatitis C virus (1990), and to evaluate the effectiveness of the notification program. DESIGN Patients who had received transfusions were identified through the hospital's medica...

OBJECTIVE Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an etiological agent responsible for occurrence of post-transfusion hepatitis in thalassemic patients. This study identified hepatitis C genotypes in pediatric and adolescent thalassemic patients and their correlation with age, blood transfusion, HCV RNA viral titer and liver function. METHODS This study considers cross-sectional data from the Center for T...

OBJECTIVE To provide physicians and other transfusion medicine professionals with a current consensus on infectious disease testing for blood transfusions. PARTICIPANTS A non-Federal, nonadvocate, 12-member consensus panel representing the fields of hematology, infectious disease, transfusion medicine, epidemiology, and biostatistics and a public representative. In addition, 23 experts in hem...

Background Worldwide, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a common cause of chronic liver disease, but it is rarely diagnosed in the stage of acute hepatitis. Although hepatitis C was the most important hepatitis related to blood products transfusion, since 1992 the overall epidemiology of HCV infection has changed dramatically, many newly diagnosed cases of HCV infection being related to ...

The risk of HBV infection by blood transfusion remains moderate due to the prevalence of HBV carriers in the general population of Peninsular Malaysia ranging from 3 to 6%. 23% of multitransfused thalassaemics showed HbsAg and 31% have been exposed to HBV infection. I Hepatitis B vaccination should be carried out at the start of blood transfusion in all thalassaeI mics destined to be transfusio...

BACKGROUND Viral hepatitis with various forms of acute and chronic liver disease as potential and ultimately fatal sequelae presents a public health problem worldwide. METHODS Recent published reports on the global epidemiology and prophylaxis of viral hepatitis were reviewed. RESULTS With the advances in novel technologies, eight distinct types of hepatitis virus have been described: Hepat...