Seroprevalence of anti-HCV among voluntary blood donors in Taiwan.

The epidemiologic characteristics of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among Chinese voluntary blood donors in 18 cities and counties all over the Taiwan Island were studied. Serum specimens of 1,135 randomly selected voluntary blood donors were tested for antibodies to HCV by Ortho enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. A total of 18 donors were found to be positive for anti-HCV with a prevalence of 1.6%. Females had a higher prevalence (11/491 = 2.2%) than male (7/644 = 1.1%). The prevalence of anti-HCV for age groups of 18-30, 31-45 and 46-60 years was 2.0%, 0.8% and 0.0%, respectively, for males, as well as 1.7%, 2.0% and 5.0%, respectively, for females. Elevated serum alanine aminotransaminase (ALT) levels were highly associated with an increased anti-HCV prevalence (1.4% and 11.8% for those who had ALT level of less than or equal to 45 and greater than 45 IU/L) in all specimens tested. The HBsAg positivity rate was 4.5% in all specimens tested. There was no significant correlation between HBV and HCV infections. Although those who had a history of surgical operation, tatooing and ear piercing had a higher anti-HCV prevalence than those without such a history (2.8% vs. 1.2%, 4.0% vs. 1.5%, and 2.1% vs. 1.5%, respectively), the differences were not statistically significant. The prevalence was higher in Taipei (4.8%), Taichung (4.4%), Taoyuan (4.0%) than in other counties. The anti-HCV prevalence was 1.5% among qualified blood donors who had a ALT less than or equal to 45 IU/L and were negative on HBsAg, TPHA and anti-HIV tests.