Hepatitis C Virus Replication

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Abstract
Farci et al. (July 11 issue) 1 reported longitudinal data on the levels of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in patients with post-transfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis and in experimentally infected chimpanzees. They drew several interesting conclusions about the patterns of HCV infection and the possible clinical value of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in classifying potentially infected persons according to those whose infection has resolved, those with persistent infection, and those with active infection. Most of their conclusions are clearly valid, but we are concerned that the effect of the manipulation and storage of the specimens on the stability, and hence the detectability, of HCV RNA may have undermined several observations.