Viral immunochemical status of HBeAg, HBeAb, Anti-HIV, and Anti-HCV in hepatitis B surface antigen-seronegative anicteric malaise patients

Abstract

Introduction: Malaise involves general discomfort, uneasiness, or pain which could indicate microbial infection or other diseases which could be as a result of immune response. Methods: The study population was 200 malaise anicteric hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-seronegative patients (females – 100; males – 100) aged 5–76, and 111 apparently healthy anicteric nonmalaise age-matched subjects who were HBsAg-seronegative (females – 56 and males – 55) were recruited as test and control subjects, respectively. Immunochemical assay of anti-HBe, anti-HCV, HBsAg, and HBeAg was carried out in all the participants by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, while anti-HIV was determined in the participants by immunochromatographic and Western blot assay. Results: The results obtained in HBsAg-seronegative anicteric malaise patients revealed the frequency of occurrence of 3% (6) HBeAg; 9.5% (19) HBeAb; 3.5% (7) anti-HIV; 6.5% (13) anti-HCV; 1% (2) anti-HIV + HBeAg; 0.5% (1) anti-HIV + HBeAb; 0.5% (1) anti-HIV + anti-HCV; and 0.5% (1) anti-HIV + anti-HCV + HBeAg, with 9.5% (19) HBeAb found to be most frequent followed by 6.5% (13) anti-HCV; 3.5% (7) anti-HIV and 3% (6) HBeAg were more in female than male. About 25% (50/200) malaise HBsAg-seronegative patients expressed at least one of the HIV, HCV, and HBV serologic markers compared with 9.9% (11/111) in the control subjects. There was a low frequency of coexpression of viral biomarkers (0.5%–1%). Conclusion: Malaise in HBsAg-seronegative patients could be associated with the expression of serologic biomarkers of HCV, HIV, and HBV.