On October 14 - November 7, 2025, Daria Neronskaya, PhD, senior researcher, Pathogen Identification Laboratory; Evgeniya Lichnaya, pediatrician, and Olga Petrova, clinical laboratory diagnostics physician, Clinical Laboratory, conducted a scheduled stage of the joint research project on "Serological and Molecular Epidemiological Monitoring of Viral Hepatitis in Vietnam" at the headquarters of the Joint Russian-Vietnamese Tropical Research and Technology Center (Hanoi, Republic of Vietnam).
As part of the study, an expedition was conducted to collect biological material and questionnaires were performed on 503 apparently healthy indigenous residents of Bat Xat Commune in the northern province of Lao Cai, located on the border with China. Blood serum samples collected (n=503) were then tested for the presence of specific antibodies to hepatitis viruses (A, B, C, D, E).
The results of the study indicate a high prevalence of hepatitis A, B, and E virus markers among the indigenous population living in Bat Xat Commune in Lao Cai Province, which, according to this study, is classified as a hyper endemic region for the prevalence of HAV, HBV, and HEV. The circulation of rare HBV variants that are not identified by the commercial AmpliSens® HBV-genotype-FL test system was detected.
Furthermore, the study results confirm the low prevalence of HCV and HDV infection among the indigenous population. The study of nucleic acid samples will continue at St. Petersburg Pasteur Research.
