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Molecular evidence of horizontal transmission of HCV within couples

¹ Instituto Butantan;
² Department of Gastroenterology, University of Sao Paulo School of Medicine;
³ Instituto de Medicina Tropical - FMUSP;
⁴ Instituto de Biociencias, Universidade de Sao Paulo

⁵ E-mail: imvgcmello{at}butantan.gov.br

HCV transmission has decreased with the adoption of universal blood donor screening and social policies to reduce the risk of infection in IDU, but it is still a worldwide health problem. Our objective was to evaluate the phylogenetic relationships among sequences from different HCV genomic regions from sexual partners of infected patients. Nine couples with a stable relationship and without other risk factors for HCV infection and 42 control patients were selected, so NS3 and NS5B regions were analyzed. The phylogenetic analysis showed that viruses from couples 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 had a common origin, clustering in the same monophyletic group, with bootstrap values higher than 70. For the other couples, monophyletic groups were observed, however without bootstrap support. In conclusion, using two different viral genome regions, we observed a common source of infection from two members of five couples. These data strongly support HCV transmission within couples.

Received 5 August 2009; accepted 4 November 2009.