Although results of IFN alpha therapy in chronic hepatitis C (C-CH) patients co-infected with TT virus (TTV) have been reported, no results of IFN beta therapy or IFN beta and alpha combination therapy have been reported. In this study, we retrospectively investigated whether co-infection with TTV affects the results of IFN therapy by using stored sera from 60 C-CH patients co-infected with TTV...

TT virus (TTV) is a newly identified human DNA virus of the family Circoviridae. Its genome consists of six putative open reading frames (ORFs). TTV was isolated originally from a patient with cryptogenic hepatitis and the association of TTV with hepatitis has been studied extensively, while its significance in other diseases is unknown. To examine the pathogenicity of TTV, mice transgenic for ...

BACKGROUND The safety of human serum albumin (HSA) is of special interest with respect to virus transmission because of the wide use of this blood product as a therapeutic agent and also, added to other products, as an excipient or a stabilizer. Conflicting data are reported concerning HSA contamination by small, naked viruses such as the erythrovirus B19 (B19V) and the anellovirus torquetenovi...

Background: Blood donation safety is one of the basic goals of the organization of blood transfusion in the world. Self-exclusion and failed options are additional screening tests to routine diagnostic tests which is performed to detect the transmitted infection through blood or blood products. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of these systems on the improvement of bloo...

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a mosquitoborne virus endemic to China and Southeast Asia that causes severe encephalitis in <1% of infected persons. Transmission of JEV via blood transfusion has not been reported. We report transmission of JEV via blood donation products from an asymptomatic viremic donor to 2 immunocompromised recipients. One recipient on high-dose immunosuppressive drug...

TT virus (TTV) was recovered from the sera of tupaias (Tupaia belangeri chinensis) by PCR using primers derived from the noncoding region of the human TTV genome, and its entire genomic sequence was determined. One tupaia TTV isolate (Tbc-TTV14) consisted of only 2199 nucleotides (nt) and had three open reading frames (ORFs), spanning 1506 nt (ORF1), 177 nt (ORF2) and 642 nt (ORF3), which were ...

To the Editor: Influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus emerged in early 2009 in Mexico and has since spread worldwide. In Japan, the first outbreak of the novel influenza was reported in May 2009 (1) and became pandemic in November. Although no cases of transfusion-transmitted influenza have been published, evidence exists of brief viremia before onset of symptoms (2,3). The possibility of trans...

The natural history and pathogenic potential of the recently identified TT virus (TTV) are currently a matter of intensive investigation. In an attempt to shed some light on these issues, nasal and blood specimens of 1- to 24-month-old children hospitalized with a clinical diagnosis of acute respiratory disease (ARD) were examined for the presence, load, and genetic characteristics of TTV. The ...