Hepatology Research 23 (2002) 85 – 89 Case report Fulminant hepatic failure in a pediatric patient with active GB virus C (GBV-C)/hepatitis G virus (HGV) infection Cleo G. Anastassopoulou a , Johanna K. Delladetsima b , Georgios Anagnostopoulos c , Antigoni Katsoulidou a , Athanassios Papachristopoulos d , Nicholas C. Tassopoulos c , Maria Theodoridou e , Angelos Hatzakis a, * a Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Athens Uniersity Medical School, 75 Mikras Asias Street, GR-115 27 Athens, Goudi, Greece b Pathology Department, Laiko General Hospital, Athens, Greece c First Department of Medicine, Western Attica General Hospital, Athens, Greece d Department of Pediatrics, Western Attica General Hospital, Athens, Greece e First Department of Pediatrics, Uniersity of Athens, St. Sophia’s Children’s Hospital, Athens, Greece Received 23 February 2001; received in revised form 25 September 2001; accepted 10 October 2001 Abstract We describe a rare case of a pediatric patient with active GB virus C (GBV-C)/hepatitis G virus (HGV) infection who died of fulminant hepatic failure within less than a month after the onset of jaundice. The child tested negative for all other known hepatitis viruses and had no history of blood transfusions. This observation suggests that although GBV-C/HGV is usually not pathogenic to the liver, it may be associated with certain idiopathic forms of fulminant hepatitis. Whether this association is etiological or circumstantial remains to be seen. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Fulminant hepatitis; GBV-C; HGV; Viral hepatitis www.elsevier.com/locate/ihepcom 1. Introduction Fulminant hepatitis (FH) is the most severe type of hepatitis that results from massive or submassive destruction of hepatocytes, commonly as a result of infection with A–E hepatitis viruses [1]. Nonetheless, the specific etiology cannot be identified in approximately one third of adult patients and in a much higher proportion of children with FH ([2–4] as cited by [5]). Cur- rently, this ‘cryptogenic’ or idiopathic form ap- pears to be increasing in frequency, especially in Western countries where infections with hepatitis B and C viruses (HBV and HCV, respectively) have been largely controlled [5]. The role of the recently cloned GBV-C/HGV [6,7] in liver disease in general and in FH, in * Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +30-1-748-6382. E-mail address: ahatzak@cc.uoa.gr (A. Hatzakis). 1386-6346/02/$ - see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S1386-6346(01)00166-8