Jpn. J. Infect. Dis., 53 (2), 67-69, 2000

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Short Communication

Viral Load in Indonesian Patients with Chronic Liver Disease and in Blood Donors Infected with Different Subtypes of Hepatitis C Virus

Maria I. Lusida, Soetjipto, Retno Handajani, Chairul A. Nidom, Soemarto, Siswanto Darmadi, Pangestu Adi, Motoko Fujii¹, Tsunenori Fujita¹, Satoshi Ishido¹ and Hak Hotta^1,2*

Tropical Disease Center, Airlangga University, Jl. Mulyorejo, Surabaya, Indonesia and¹Department of Microbiology and ²International Center for Medical Research, Kobe University School of Medicine, Kusunoki-cho 7-5-1, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0017, Japan

(Received February 7, 2000. Accepted March 10, 2000)

SUMMARY: The viral load of different hepatitis C virus (HCV) subtypes, including the globally distributed HCV-1b and the unique Indonesian subtype HCV-1c, was analyzed using serum samples obtained from Indonesian blood donors and patients with chronic liver disease. The mean viral load of HCV-1c was comparable with that of HCV-1b, suggesting that HCV-1c is as pathogenic as HCV-1b. On the other hand, the mean viral load of HCV-2a was lower than that of HCV-1b or HCV-1c, with this result being consistent with previous observations. Interestingly, some HCV-2a strains were associated with a high viral load that was almost equivalent to that of HCV-1b and HCV-1c. This result implies the possibility that there exists a minor fraction of HCV-2a strains that cause higher levels of viremia compared with the majority of ordinary HCV-2a strains.

* Corresponding author: Tel: +81-78-382-5500, Fax: +81-78-382-5519, E-mail: hotta@kobe-u.ac.jp

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