Cross-sectional Survey And Molecular Epidemiological Study Of HCV Infection In A Village In Hebei Province

Hepatitis C virus(HCV)is a major causative agent that seriously harms to human health.HCV can be spread via blood and blood products,intravenous injection and mother-to-child vertical.HCV infections lead to chronic hepatitis,cirrhosis and even liver cancer,which would cause serious harm to human health.The global prevalence of HCV is about 2.5%,and the prevalence of is significantly different in different regions.HCV is divided into six genotypes and more than 100 subtypes.HCV in different subtypes often rely on a specific route of transmission,which also led to different HCV genotype distributions in different regions and population.The currunt status of HCV infenction in China is not optimistic.Due to limited data,the prevalence of HCV prevalence among general population is not accurate.The reported prevalence of HCV in the general population varies from 0.39%to 2.5%.The HCV strains genotyped 1,2,3,6 have been detected in China,and the genotype lb is the most common.In the northern region,subtype 2a is the second common.But in the southern part of the province,especially in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta region,the 6a subtype has replaced the subtype 2a,and the infection of new subtype 6a showed an upward trend.The aim of this research is to investigate the prevenlence of HCV infection among residents in a village of Hebei Province,to explore the risk factors of HCV infection and then providing the basic data for the prevention and control of HCV infection.There are two parts in this research.The first part is a cross-sectional survey.We try to infer risk factors of HCV infection in this village with the use of statistical methods.We conducted a cross-sectional survey of all residents in the village in 1994,recording the basic population information and exposure history,and collected the serum of the residents for anti-HCV testing.In this study,we used the data obtained in 1994.Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to infer the risk factors of HCV infection.The results show that only plasma donation(OR=26.214),mixed blood donation(OR=11.397)and plasma doation years(OR=1.182)were the risk factors for HCV infection in the village.We speculated that the illegal plasma donation from later 1980s to former 1990s was the cause of the infection of HCV in the village.In the second part,we analysis the gene sequences obtained in 2014 by bioinformation techniques.5’UTR,C/El,NS5B of HCV genome were obtained by RT-PCR amplifying and phylogenetic analysis shows that only subtype lb and 2a were detected.Subtype lb is the predominant isolation(75%).Evolutionary analysis reveals that the spread history of subtype lb is more complex than subtype 2a.The maximum clade credibility tree and the Bayesian skyline plot show that the outbreak period of HCV infection in the village is between about from 1985 to 1995.In a word,the current hepatitis C virus prevalence in this village may have been resulted mainly from the plasma campaign during the 1980s to 1990.It’s great significant for HCV prevetion and control by strict blood production management,standard blood donation activities and strict screening of blood donors.