[Seroprevalence of viral hepatitis C in polytransfused patients at Central University Hospital of Brazzaville].

The viral C hepatitis is a disease which is often asymptomatic but with a very high risk of death. A prospective survey on multitransfused patients with a high transfusional risk has been conducted between May 1st and September 30th, 2001 in the medical services of the Hospital of Brazzaville. It deals with 252 samples of blood taken on 132 multitransfused patients and 120 control cases who have never been transfused. The screening of antibodies has been performed with ELISA technique by using 2 sensitive tests: the monolisa anti-HCV plus version 2 (Bio-Rad) and BIOTEC HCV a.b. Only monolisa is registered by AFSSAPS. The survey shows a overall seroprevalence of 13.9%: multitransfused patients: 26 out of 132 (19.7%) and control cases 9 out of 120 (7.5%). The prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies is practically similar in both series. It is low among control cases before 20 years old, but important in this same group when the patients are multitransfused. It is very significant among adult control cases, indicating the probability of other transmission modes in this age bracket. Patients suffering from hemoglobinopathy (sickle cell) and from malignant hemopathy paid an heavy toll to the virus with respectively 16.9% and 22% of prevalence even if the sampling is restricted. This results point out the necessary implementation of a systematic screening of all the main viruses before transfusion.