Caracterização epidemiológica, virológica e imunológica de voluntários anti-HCV reativos do município de Iranduba, região metropolitana de Manaus

Abstract

Hepatitis C is a disease characterized by the inflammation of the liver with HCV transmitted primarily through infected blood. It is estimated that 170 million people, about 3% of the world population, is infected with hepatitis C. Unlike other viruses that cause hepatitis, HCV does not generate adequate immune response in the body, which makes 80% of the infected to evolve into chronicity, whereas 15 to 20% of infected people heal spontaneously. In Brazil there is a significant variation in the prevalence of infection, the main cause of this epidemiological distinction is the characteristics differences between populations and geographic that each region studied has, and the limited epidemiological data about the disease. There is no vaccine against hepatitis C virus, thus early diagnosis increases the effectiveness of treatment. The aim of this study was to characterize the epidemiological, virological and immunological anti-HCV general population living in the city of Iranduba, metropolitan region of Manaus. Where were evaluated 700 volunteers and it was detected a positive case, using a rapid anti-HCV test, despite the presence of classical risk factors for infection in the seronegative volunteers. The realization of a molecular test, the polymerase chain reaction, confirmed the diagnosis of infection and by phylogenetic analysis of the NS5B region of the viral genome was observed genotype 2b. Among cytokines quantified, in the anti-HCV positive case, IL-2, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α and IL-17A were more prevalent. The study showed serumprevalence anti-HCV of 0.14%, ranking the city as a place of low endemicity for HCV and reinforcing the heterogeneous characterization of the Amazon of hepatitis C.