Positivity for Anti-HCV Antibodies among Italian Hospitalized Patients

To assess the prevalence of anti Hepatitis C Virus antibodies (anti-HCV) in patients admitted to a primary hospital, far beyond a decade from hepatitis C virus discovery. Six hundred and four consecutive patients (307 female), admitted to the medical ward of Roccadaspide hospital during the year 2002 were studied. Firstly, all the enrolled subjects were examined for the anti-HCV. Secondly, the anti-HCV positive patients were screened for the qualitative HCV-RNA. Finally, the HCV-RNA positive patients were tested for viral load and HCV genotype. Among the patients enrolled, 43 (7.12%) tested reactive for anti-HCV, without difference between sexes. Thirty two of these subjects (74.4%) were unaware of their condition. Among the anti-HCV positive subjects, 81.4% came out to be HCV-RNA positive (18/25 males, 72.0% and 17/18 females, 94.4%). Predominant genotypes were 1b and 2a/2c (54.3 and 34.3%, respectively); more uncommon resulted to be 1a (8.6%) and 3a genotypes (2.8%).