ANTI-HCV AND HEPATITIS C VIRUS RNA IN SERA AMONG BLOOD DONORS, PATIENTS ON MAINTENANCE HEMODIALYSIS, AND PATIENTS WITH HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA IN SURABAYA

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been known to be a major causative agent of chronic liver disease such as chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis, which often leads to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Determination of the prevalence of liver disease caused by HCV helps provide an understanding of the virulence of these virus. Hence, we performed seroepidemiological and molecular epidemological study of HCV in Surabaya. The anti-HCV antibodies shows that the patients has been exposed to HCV, but we don’t know whether this virus still in the blood or not, and detection of HCV RNA in the blood shows that the patients still infectious.  The aim of this study is to know the correlation between the positivity of anti-HCV antibodies and HCV RNA among blood doors, patients on maintenance hemodialysis, and patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The positivity of HCV RNA in anti-HCV-positive sera from blood donors, patients on maintenance hemodialysis, and patients with HCC were 84%, 97%, and 95%. These data shown that HCV RNA could be detected in more than 80% anti-HCV-positive sera, and it’s means that the sera were still infectious.