Molecular characterization of hepatitis A virus from children hospitalized at a tertiary care centre in northwest India

Background & objectives: Hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection is a major cause of childhood hepatitis, prevalent worldwide. HAV is classified into seven genotypes I-VII; genotypes III and I are the most common among humans. The present work was carried out to identify the genotypes prevalent in children suspected to have acute viral hepatitis (AVH), hospitalized at a tertiary care centre in northwest India. Methods: A total of 1269 blood samples from children (0-15 yr of age) clinically suspected of viral hepatitis were screened for anti-HAV IgM. Acute phase serum was processed for RNA extraction and amplified by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by sequencing of representative samples. Results: Among the 1269 samples tested, 642 (50.59%) were positive for anti-HAV IgM; among the positive samples, 171 patients having a history of less than seven days were tested by PCR, of whom 141 (82.45%) were found to be PCR positive. Nucleotide sequencing of a representative 44 samples showed high homology; all the samples were found to be of genotype IIIA. Interpretation & conclusions: Hepatitis A was prevalent during July to September and in predominantly children less than five years age. Only genotype IIIA was detected in all the samples.

Keywords

Genotyping, HAV, hepatitis A, phylogenetic analysis, polymerase chain reaction, serology

Citation

Malhotra B, Kanwar A, Reddy PV, Chauhan A, Tiwari J, Bhargava S, Verma H N. Molecular characterization of hepatitis A virus from children hospitalized at a tertiary care centre in northwest India. Indian Journal of Medical Research. 2018 May; 147(5): 507-512

URI

https://imsear.searo.who.int/handle/123456789/195533

Collections

Indian Journal of Medical Research

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