Distribution of Hepatitis C prevalence in individuals according to their age level in Eastern Turkey Hamza Bozkurt a , Muhammet Guzel Kurtoglu b , Yasemin Bayram a , Recep Kesli c and Mustafa Berktas a , a Faculty of Medicine, Department of Microbiology, Yuzuncu Yil University, b Yu ¨ksek I ˙ htisas Educational and Research Hospital, Microbiology Laboratory, Van and c Konya Education and Research Hospital, Microbiology Laboratory, Konya, Turkey Correspondence to Muhammet Guzel Kurtoglu, MD, Konya Egitim ve Arastirma Hastanesi, Meram Yeniyol, Konya, Turkey Tel: þ 90 505 5062165; fax: þ 90 332 3236723; e-mail: kurtoglumg@hotmail.com Received 4 April 2008 Accepted 18 April 2008 Hepatitis C virus (HCV) belongs to the Flaviviridae virus family. Its reservoir is the human being. HCV is highly transmittable and is usually transmitted through blood transfusion, use of the same syringe between drug users, during sexual interaction and from mother to child. The course of HCV infection can develop subclinically with- out any clear symptoms. More than 50% of patients, however, develop chronic hepatitis, and subsequently a high percentage of these patients develop cirrhosis [1,2]. Antibodies against HCV are detected by enzyme im- munoassay (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) tests very sensitively and specifically. The third-generation enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay tests used at pre- sent contain core protein and nonstructural proteins and can detect antibodies within 4–10 weeks of infection [3]. Many scientists from different countries have been studying seroprevalence of HCV. They search for the frequency of the infection in the general population and in some special groups [4]. In this study, we aimed to determine seroprevalence of HCV in Eastern Turkey retrospectively. Of a total 4000 participants, 1989 (49.7%) were male and 2011 (50.3%) were female. Anti-HCV antibodies were found to be positive in 2.1% (84 of 4000) of the individuals. The results showed that 45 (2.3%) men and 39 (2%) women were positive for anti-HCV. The mean ages of the patients were 47.8717.3 years. No statistical difference was found between men and women for anti- HCV seropositivity (P40.05). Anti-HCV positivity was found to have the highest rates (4.8%, 4.5%) in the 50–59 and 60–70 years age groups (Table 1). In the literature, it was found that the prevalence of HCV is 5.17% in Africa, 3.55% in Asia, 1.93% in America, 1.75% in Europe, and 1.88% in Australia [5]. In developed countries, the prevalence of anti-HCV is between 1 and 2%. In the general population in America, anti-HCV positivity is between 1 and 8%. It was found that the prevalence of HCV is higher in some studies performed in Eastern areas of Europe and Africa. Especially, the prevalence is about 15% in general population in Egypt. The HCV prevalence in Turkey is between 1 and 2.4%. In studies in different groups, the prevalence of anti-HCV is between 0.05 and 51.6% [4]. For this reason, this study was presented to estimate the level of anti-HCV rates in patients in our area and, to set light to epidemiological studies and contribution to scientific studies. In conclusion, we found that anti-HCV positivity was 2.1% in Eastern Turkey, which was consistent with other parts of Turkey. Acknowledgement Conflict of interest: none declared. References 1 Lemon SM, Walker C, Alter MJ, Yi MK. Hepatitis C. In: Knife DM, Howley PM, editors. Fields virology. 5th ed. Vol 2. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluver, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2007. pp. 3031–3046. 2 Shuhart MC, Gretch DR. Hepatitis C and G Viruses. In: Murray PR, Baron EJ, Pfaller MA, Jorgensen JH, Yolken RH, editors. Manuel of clinical microbiology. 8th ed. Washington: ASM Press; 2003. pp. 1480–1495. 3 Pawlotsky JM. Use and interpretation of virological tests for hepatitis C. Hepatology 2002; 36:65–73. 4 Sunbul M. The epidemiology and protection of HCV infection. In: Tabak F, Balik I, Tekeli E, editors. Viral hepatit 2007 . Istanbul: Viral Hepatitle Savasim Dernegi; 2007. pp. 208–219. 5 Quer J, Esteban J. Epidemiology. In: Thomas HC, Lemon S, Zuckerman AJ, editors. Viral hepatitis. 3rd ed. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing; 2005. pp. 407–425. Hereditary diffuse gastric cancer associated with E-cadherin mutation: penetrance after all Daniel R. Gaya a , Robert C. Stuart b , James J. Going c and Adrian J. Stanley a , Departments of a Gastroenterology, b Surgery and c Pathology, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, UK Correspondence to Dr Daniel R. Gaya, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Gastroenterology Unit, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Castle Street, Glasgow G4 0SF, UK Tel: þ 44 141 211 4290; fax: þ 44 141 211 5131; e-mail: daniel.gaya@ggc.scot.nhs.uk Received 13 March 2008 Accepted 7 April 2008 Table 1 Distribution of anti-HCV positivity according to the age groups and sex Sex Male Female General total Age groups n % n % N % 0–11 3 1.1 4 1.5 7 1.3 12–29 5 1.1 6 1.1 11 1.0 30–39 14 3.4 7 1.3 21 2.3 40–49 7 2.1 6 2.3 13 2.3 50–59 7 4.5 10 4.6 17 4.0 60–70 9 4.6 4 2.9 13 3.9 71–80 F F 2 4.8 2 1.2 Total 45 2.3 39 1.9 84 2.1 Letters to the Editor 1249 Copyright © Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.