Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a single stranded, enveloped RNA virus that causes hepatitis C viral infection. HCV is from the Flaviviridae family and of genus Hepacivirus. It’s highly variable and mutation-prone regions coding for the envelope proteins consequently allows the virus to evade the human host immune system, as well as impairing the development for an effective vaccine.
HCV is the most common chronic blood borne infection in the world. It is spread mostly through inadvertent exposure to infected blood, and is predominantly transmitted through intravenous drug abuse/users.
In most acute cases, the patient is unaware of their HCV infected status because of non-specific symptoms. In 20% of acute cases, the hepatitis C infection may self-resolve while the remaining 80% later progress to chronic infection. Those with chronic HCV infection have a higher risk of developing fibrosis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and end-stage liver disease.
The aim of our evaluation was to determine the performance of the TGA-approved Hepatitis C assays, Bio-Rad Monolisa™ HCV Ag-Ab ULTRA (Bio-Rad Monolisa™) and DiaSorin Liaison® XL Murex HCV Ab (Liaison® XL Murex), and compare both of the assays to the current method used at Royal North Shore Hospital, DiaSorin Murex anti-HCV 4.0 (Murex anti-HCV).