High-Speed Detection of Blood-borne Hepatitis C Virus RNA by Single-Tube Real-Time Fluorescence Reverse Transcription-PCR with the LightCycler

Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been identified as the agent responsible for the vast majority of cases of posttransfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis. Although generally asymptomatic, ∼85% of the infections become chronic with a wide spectrum of outcomes (1).