بررسي وضعيت عفونت نهفته هپاتيت B در بيماران تالاسمي آلوده به هپاتيت C استان كرمان در سال 1386

Evaluation of Occult Hepatits B Virus Infection in Thalassemic Patients Infected by HeV in Kerman Province of Iran

Background and Objectives: Thalassemic patients are at risk of blood transmitted infectious diseases such as hepatitis Band C, due to continued receiving of blood and its components. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of occult Hepatits B Virus infection (OBI) and HBV markers in thalassemic patients with Hepatitis C infection. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 60 thalassemic patients were examined for HCV infection by Reverse Transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) during Apr-Sep 2007 in the Kerman province of Iran. Hepatitis B virus infection was evaluated in the HCV positive thalassemic patients by PCR. Anti-HBc, anti-HBs and HBsAg were detected using ELISA. Results: Results indicated that although 27 (45%) of the cases, out of60, were infected by HCV, but HBV-DNA was not detected in the HCV infected patients. The findings also showed that 9 (33%) out of 27 HCV-RNA positive patients were anti-HBc positive and 11 (40.7%) out of27 patients were positive for anti-HBs. Conclusion: Results of this study indicated that the prevalence of OBI was very low in thalassemic patients (in contrast to HCV infection). However, this value is probably due to the inhibitory effects of IfCV on host cell translation system which affects HBV protein translation