Occult hepatitis C virus infection and associated predictive factors: The Pakistan experience

▶ Seventy five percent subjects found negative for anti-HCV antibodies and viremia had HCV-RNA in their livers. ▶ HCV was found replicating in the livers of 34% of the subjects having occult HCV infection using PCR assays for negative HCV RNA strands. ▶ Patients with elevated liver enzymes and negative HCV antibodies and negative serum RNA may have occult HCV infection. ▶ The chance of occult HCV infection increases with previous history of surgeries, male sex and age above 30 years.