ABSTRACT

By 1992, a sensitive and specific second generation enzyme immunoabsorbent assay (EIA) for detecting anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody became available. Unlike the retro viruses, HCV replication does not produce DNA intermediates. In 1992, Abbott Laboratories in Germany provided second generation EIA anti-HCV kits to Dr. Moamena Kamel's clinical pathology. HCV serology was done in a remote village population in the northern Nile Delta. Anti-HCV positivity increased dramatically by age to over 30 percent in the adults. Females had only a slightly lower prevalence of HCV than males and were almost equally HCV immunoglobulin M (IgM) positive. There is an independent, persistent association between heptocellular carcinoma (HCC) with HCV markers and hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) regardless of control group selected. Since the exposure to HCV in Egypt is the highest reported to date, the magnitude of association with heptocellular carcinoma (HCC) suggests a very significant public health problem.