Research article

Hepatitis C virus prevalence and genetic diversity among pregnant women in Gabon, central Africa

Guy-Roger Ndong-Atome¹ , Maria Makuwa¹ , Richard Njouom² , Michel Branger³ , Francoise Brun-Vézinet³ , Antoine Mahé^4,5 , Dominique Rousset^2,6 and Mirdad Kazanji^1,5,6

¹Laboratoire de Virologie, Centre International de Recherches Médicales (CIRMF), BP 769, Franceville, Gabon

²Laboratoire de Virologie, Centre Pasteur du Cameroun, Yaounde, Cameroon

³Service de Virologie, Centre Hospitalier Bichat-Claude Bernard, Paris, France

⁴Programme National de Lutte contre le Sida, Libreville, Gabon

⁵Service de Coopération et d'Action Culturelle, French Embassy, BP 2105, Libreville, Gabon

⁶Réseau International des Instituts Pasteur, Institut Pasteur, 28 rue du Dr Roux, 75015 Paris, France

author email corresponding author email

BMC Infectious Diseases 2008, 8:82doi:10.1186/1471-2334-8-82

Published:	17 June 2008

Abstract

Background

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major global public health problem in both developed and developing countries. The prevalence and genetic diversity of HCV in pregnant women in Gabon, central Africa, is not known. We therefore evaluated the prevalence and the circulating genotypes of HCV in a large population cohort of pregnant women.

Methods

Blood samples (947) were collected from pregnant women in the five main cities of the country. The prevalence was evaluated by two ELISA tests, and the circulating genotypes were characterized by sequencing and phylogenetic analysis.

Results

Twenty pregnant women (2.1%) were infected with HCV. The seroprevalence differed significantly by region (p = 0.004) and increased significantly with age (p = 0.05), being 1.3% at 14–20 years, 1.1% at 21–25 years, 1.9% at 26–30 years, 4.1% at 31–35 years and 6.0% at > 35 years. Sequencing in the 5'-UTR and NS5B regions showed that the circulating strains belonged to genotypes 4 (4e and 4c).

Conclusion

We found that the HCV seroprevalence in pregnant women in Gabon is almost as high as that in other African countries and increases with age. Furthermore, only genotype 4 (4e and 4c) was found. More extensive studies aiming to evaluate the prevalence and heterogeneity of HCV genotypes circulating in the general population of the country are needed.