Samples reactive by first-generation recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) to detect antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) (RIBA-1 [Chiron, Calif.]) remained reactive by a second-generation test (RIBA-2) for HCV antibodies. A total of 75% of specimens indeterminate by RIBA-1 became reactive, 12.5% were nonreactive, and 12.5% remained indeterminate by RIBA-2. Among RIBA-1-nonreactive specimens,...

The paper analyzes different interpretations of riba and discovers that the main source of confusion about the concept has been misunderstanding of riba in hadith in general and riba in barter exchange with a time lag, hereafter called riba in barter loans, in particular. A majority of jurists has, so far, either overlooked riba in barter loans or has included it in the category of trivial riba...

The hepatitis C antibody reactivity rate in 91,748 blood donors tested using the ORTHO HCV C-100 ELISA system was 0.51%. Specificity of ELISA positive reactions was measured using a recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA). The aim of this study was to identify markers in ELISA positive donors which were predictive of a RIBA positive result. Samples from 430 ELISA positive donors were tested by the ...

Screening blood donations for anti-HCV antibodies and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) serum levels generally prevents the transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV) by transfusion. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficiency of the enzyme immunoassay (EIA) screening policy in identifying potentially infectious blood donors capable to transmit hepatitis C through blood transfusion. W...

The serodiagnosis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection was analyzed by a recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) with recombinant proteins encoded by the viral RNA isolated from our patients in Hamburg, Germany. The HCV RNA was amplified by PCR, and proteins encoded by the viral core and the NS3, NS4, and NS5 regions were expressed subsequently in Escherichia coli. The results obtained with our UKE...

The specificities of four assays for hepatitis C virus (HCV) were compared by using units from volunteer blood donors. Upon Food and Drug Administration licensure of the first immunoassay for anti-HCV, EIA-1, units previously deemed acceptable for transfusion and all subsequent blood donations were screened. EIA-1 repeat-reactive (RR) units were tested for HCV by a second-generation enzyme-link...

Lack of vaccine and effective antiviral drugs against chikungunya virus (CHIKV) outbreaks have led to significant impact on health care in the developing world. Here, we evaluated the antiviral effects of tetracycline (TETRA) derivatives and other common antiviral agents against CHIKV. Our results showed that within the TETRA derivatives group, Doxycycline (DOXY) exhibited the highest inhibitor...

In a study using the current first generation Ortho ELISA, a second generation Ortho ELISA, and the RIBA HCV strip immunoblot assay, all patients who were strongly positive for antihepatitis C virus (HCV) on ELISAs (OD490 > 3) were reactive to RIBA for multiple bands. While all ELISA false positive samples had low or intermediate OD490 values, RIBA confirmed HCV reactivity in 50% of the patient...

INTRODUCTION Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is diagnosed by the presence of antibodies and is supplemented by confirmatory testing methods, such as recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) and HCV-RNA detection. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of RIBA testing to diagnose HCV infection in blood donors positive for anti-HCV antibodies. METHODS A total of 102 subjects positive for anti-H...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies were detected in 85.9% of the samples by commercial enzyme immunoassay (EIA) kits. Most EIA-positive samples were reactive (80%) by the RIBA HCV test (Ortho Diagnostics). Samples with optical density values greater than or equal to 2.0 were mostly reactive (87%) by RIBA HCV test, in contrast to those with values less than or equal to 1.0 (6.6%). Samples which ...