The diagnostic performances of three commercially available recombinant immunoblot assays (RIBAs) for anti-hepatitis C virus antibody were evaluated on 50 ORTHO-HCV RIBA-2 (RIBA-2)-indeterminate serum samples. Concordant interpretations were obtained with the three tests in 60% of the samples, with 56% positive, 2% indeterminate, and 2% negative results. Considering test performance in regard t...

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection is a persistent problem worldwide due to efficient adaptation of the viral vectors, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. Therefore, the absence of effective anti-CHIKV drugs to combat chikungunya outbreaks often leads to a significant impact on public health care. In this study, we investigated the antiviral activity of drugs that are used to allevi...

F. Fabrizi, Nephrology Department, Hospital, Via Ghislanzoni 23, I-22053 Lecco (Italy) Dear Sir, Non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANBH) is now the most common form of hepatitis in haemodialysis (HD) units both in patients and staff [1]. Recently, it has been clarified that hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of NANBH [2], but only indirect diagnosis is routinely available. In fact, with the advent...

Islamic finance is a prohibition-driven industry, aiming to avoid the prohibitions of riba and gharar. It is well accepted in Islamic jurisprudence that riba and gharar do not affect the legal validity of non-commutative financial contracts (e.g. gifts). Jurists have long viewed this as a potential solution to the problem of gharar in commercial insurance, proposing mutual insurance as a non-co...

Objectives: A retrospective study was carried out to assess the performance of hepatitis C diagnostic assays in our laboratory, and to determine the prevalence of hepatitis C among blood donors at the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital. Methods: From 1991 to 2001, approximately 55,000 serum samples collected from blood donors and patients were submitted to our laboratory for testing. All sera we...

Alpha interferon (IFN-α) suppresses human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replication in vitro by inducing cell-intrinsic retroviral restriction mechanisms. We investigated the effects of IFN-α/ribavirin (IFN-α/riba) treatment on 34 anti-HIV-1 restriction factors in vivo. Expression of several anti-HIV-1 restriction factors was significantly induced by IFN-α/riba in HIV/hepatitis C virus ...

BACKGROUND Chemiluminescence immunoassay (CIA) is used to detect hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody status on the basis of signal-to-cutoff (S/Co) ratios. Positive results of antibody to HCV (anti-HCV) are followed by either recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) to confirm anti-HCV positivity or reverse transcription (RT)-PCR to detect viremia. We hypothesized that by analyzing S/Co ratios, we coul...

OBJECTIVE To determine the seroprevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus antibodies (anti-HCV) in blood donors, and to describe the correlation between screening serological test results and confirmatory test. METHODS Epidemiological and laboratorial records of 10,090 blood donors of the blood unit in the city of Apucarana, Brazil, from January 1997 to December 1999 were assessed. Anti-HCV serum a...

Supplemental assays, such as recombinant immunoblot assays (RIBA), are used to confirm detection of antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV). However, due to their expense, they are not widely used in developing countries. The purpose of our study was to compare the results of second- and third-generation (G2 and G3, respectively) enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) and to resolve discordant results by usi...