[TTV infection in healthy subjects]

Abstract

Recently, a novel hepatitis related virus was described and named as TTV. The positive rates of TTV DNA in healthy subjects to far reported ranged from 1% to 62%, therefore, there must be large differences in the prevalence of TTV in healthy subjects from country to country. However, detailed data are lacking in many reports, care should be taken in analyzing them. Generally, elderly subjects tend to have increased positivity in the same area. Sanitary environment may influence the positive rate. In addition the distribution of genotype may influence the positive rate. Although the high prevalence of TTV in healthy subjects may indicate the TTV as non-hepatopathogenic virus, further studies will be needed before drawing the conclusion.