Investigation of saliva, faeces, urine or semen samples for the presence of GBV-C RNA

GBV-C/HGV has been demonstrated to be distributed worldwide with a prevalence in blood donors higher than HCV. This distribution in the general population probably requires an effective non-parenteral route of transmission. A previous study was performed to evaluate the presence of GBV-C/HGV in serum. Saliva, faeces and urine samples of 30 patients (15 males and 15 females) and 15 semen samples from patients whose serum gave a GBV-C/HGV RNA positive result were then tested by a sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. Five semen supernatant samples (33.3%) tested positive – four of them belonged to HIV positive patients – and two saliva samples contained GBV-C/HGV sequences (6.6%) – one from a HIV-positive patient. An internal control was used to detect PCR non-specific inhibitors in the samples. The data suggest possible non-parenteral routes of transmission from this virus. Its presence in body fluids other than serum has clinical implications other than possible hepatic damage that remain to be investigated.