Hepatitis C, Comparison of clinical and virological characteristics between individuals with and without any HGV marker in high- and no-endemicity areas, Current Information On Hepatitis C & treatments for the medical professional and patient.

table 2. Comparison of clinical and virological characteristics between individuals with and without any HGV marker in high- and no-endemicity areas

Characteristic^a	No. (%) of patients with any HGV marker^b		P
Characteristic^a	Positive	Negative	P

High-endemicity area^c
History of surgical operation	17 (27.0)	33 (24.1)	>0.2
History of blood transfusion	5 (7.9)	9 (6.6)	>0.2
History of folk remedies	38 (60.3)	53 (38.7)	0.0043
HBs antigen	0 (0.0)	4 (2.9)	>0.2^d
Any HBV marker	23 (36.5)	41 (29.9)	>0.2
HCV RNA	34 (54.0)	16 (11.7)	<0.0001
Any HCV marker	41 (65.1)	22 (16.1)	<0.0001
No-endemicity area^e
History of surgical operation	3 (25.0)	42 (22.3)	>0.2
History of blood transfusion	4 (33.3)	16 (8.5)	0.0055
History of folk remedies	3 (25.0)	51 (27.1)	>0.2
HBs antigen	0 (0.0)	3 (1.6)	>0.2^d
Any HBV marker	5 (41.7)	37 (19.7)	0.0698
HCV RNA	2 (16.7)	1 (0.5)	0.0096^d
Any HCV marker	3 (25.0)	2 (1.1)	0.0016^d

^a Any HBV marker, positive for HBs antigen, HBs antibody, and/or HBc antibody; any HCV marker, positive for HCV RNA and/or HCV antibody.
^b Any HGV marker, positive for HGV RNA and/or HGV-E2 antibody.
^c Total positive, 63; total negative, 137.
^d Obtained by Fisher’s exact test; all other P values were obtained by the chi-square test.
^e Total positive, 12; total negative, 188.