Evaluations of communication efforts and preventive measures are important in developing evidence-based public health plans to prevent and mitigate disease outbreaks at the Hajj and other mass gatherings. Every year, millions of Muslims, including thousands in the United States, make a pilgrimage called the Hajj to the cities of Mecca and Medina in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

(KSA). An estimated 2,521,000 pilgrims attended the 2009 Hajj during November 25–29; of these, 1,613,000 were international pilgrims from 163 countries, including 11,066 US Hajj travelers.1,2 While all mass gatherings have the potential to place travelers at risk for infectious and noninfectious hazards, the Hajj presents some of the world’s most important public health and infection control challenges.3 Ribociclib datasheet A variety of risk factors makes

the Hajj an environment where emerging infectious diseases can quickly spread and even evolve into epidemics, including extended stays at Hajj sites, crowded accommodations with other Hajj pilgrims, many of whom are from developing nations, and long periods of time spent in densely packed crowds (crowd densities at Hajj have been estimated to be as high as seven people per square meter).4 Any disease outbreak at the Hajj could potentially be spread globally by returning travelers though major airline hubs, which could become the settings for further dissemination of disease.5 The 2009 Hajj took place during the influenza A(H1N1) pandemic, check details which led to increased emphasis on understanding ways to mitigate the potential spread of respiratory disease.6 In order to address these concerns KSA, with guidance from national and international

public health agencies such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the World Health Organization (WHO), issued recommendations on measures to mitigate the impact of influenza A(H1N1) among pilgrims performing the Hajj. The recommended behaviors included washing hands often (hand hygiene), use of hand sanitizers, wearing a face mask, covering one’s cough or sneeze (cough etiquette), staying away from sick people (social distancing), C1GALT1 and not touching objects touched by sick people (contact avoidance).7,8 At the time the survey was developed, CDC recommendations for high-risk people in crowded settings where influenza A(H1N1) was circulating were to avoid the setting, but if that was not possible, to consider wearing a face mask.9 The 2009 Hajj presented an opportunity to evaluate behavioral interventions for community mitigation of respiratory disease in the context of an extremely large and crowded mass gathering. Our survey collected self-report data on protective practices and respiratory illness among US travelers to the 2009 Hajj.

Phanerochaete sordida YK-624 (ATCC 90872) from rotten wood (Hirai et al., 1994) was used in this study. The fungus was maintained on potato dextrose agar slants at 4 °C. AFB1 was purchased from Wako Pure Chemical Industries (Japan). The umu test with umulac AT (Protein

Purify Ltd, Japan) was used to assay mutagenic activity. All other chemicals were extra-pure grade learn more and were used without further purification. MnP from P. sordida YK-624 was prepared and purified using the modified method described by Kondo et al. (1994). The MnP solution did not contain LiP activity, and has been purified to homogeneity in sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The purified MnP on isoelectric focusing showed one isoform (data not shown). MnP activity

was measured by monitoring the oxidation of 2,6-dimethoxyphenol to coerulignone (ɛ470=49.6 mM−1 cm−1) (Pèriè & Gold, 1991). The reaction mixture (1 mL) contained 2,6-dimethoxyphenol (1 mM), MnSO4 (1 mM), and H2O2 (0.2 mM) in 50 mM malonate, pH 4.5. One katal (kat) was defined as the amount of enzyme producing 1 mol product s−1. MnP reactions were performed in 1 mL of reaction mixture containing 5 nkat MnP, 10 μL of 1 mM AFB1 in 10% dimethylsulfoxide, 1 mM MnSO4, 0.1% Tween 80, 4 nkat glucose oxidase, and 2.5 mM glucose in 50 mM http://www.selleckchem.com/products/Bleomycin-sulfate.html malonate, pH 4.5. Reactions were performed in triplicate for 24 h at 30 °C and mixing at 150 r.p.m. In some experiments, the amount of MnP (1–20 nkat) and the reaction time (1–48 h) were changed, and Tween 80 was excluded. The amount of AFB1 was determined by HPLC under the following conditions: column, Wakosil-II 5C18HG (4.6 mm × 150 mm, Wako Pure Chemical Industries); mobile phase, 40% aqueous methanol; flow rate, 0.5 mL min−1; and detection wavelength, 365 nm. The umu test with umulac AT was used to assay the mutagenic activity of AFB1 (Oda et al., 1995). The test was performed with Salmonella typhimurium TA1535 and S9 liver homogenate. The TA1535 strain was constructed by subcloning the bacterial O-acetyltransferase gene into a plasmid vector pACYC184 and introducing the plasmid into the original S. typhimurium TA1535/pSK1002 strain harboring

an umuC‘–’lacZ fusion gene. Assays were Phosphoprotein phosphatase carried out in triplicate using 10 μL of test sample, 10 μL of S9mix (a metabolic activation system based on S9 liver homogenate), and 100 μL of bacterial culture. After incubation for 2 h at 37 °C, 100 μL of X-Gal solution was added to each well, and after 1 h at 37 °C, the reaction was stopped by the addition of SDS/dimethylsulfoxide solution. The absorbance of the mixture was read at 600 nm. The relative mutagenic activity (%) was defined as the percentage of β-galactosidase activity of the AFB1-containing reaction mixture (with 5, 10, or 20 nkat MnP) divided by the activity of the AFB1-containing reaction mixture without MnP. AFB1 (final concentration 160 μM) was incubated at 30 °C for 48 h in a 100-mL reaction mixture containing 750 nkat MnP, 1 mM MnSO4, 0.

Fisher’s PLSD test was employed to compare caries scores between combinations of the detected bacteria. Results.  Streptococcus mutans and S. sobrinus were present in 38.3% and 68.0%, respectively, whereas 14.8% were positive for S. mutans alone, 44.5% for S. sobrinus alone, and 23.5% for both S. mutans and

S. sobrinus, with 17.2% negative for both. The DFT, dft, and total (DFT + dft) scores for subjects positive for both S. mutans and S. sobrinus were significantly higher than those positive for S. mutans alone (P < 0.05, in triplicate). Conclusion.  These results suggest that schoolchildren harbouring click here both S. mutans and S. sobrinus have a significant higher dental caries experience in both permanent and primary teeth as compared to those with S. mutans alone. “
“International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry 2010; 20: 451–457 Background.  There is a lack of actual data regarding oral health in children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities. Aim.  To evaluate the oral Selleckchem BI 6727 health in adolescents with intellectual disabilities participating in the German Special Olympics games 2008. Methods.  A free voluntary dental examination was offered to the participating athletes. Dental examinations were performed according to WHO criteria by dental clinicians. In addition, information about the

athletes’ oral hygiene habits was collected. Results.  The number of adolescent athletes aged between 12 and 17 years who had their teeth Adenylyl cyclase examined was 160. On average they were 15.3 years old. Caries prevalence was 58.1% and the mean DMFT was 2.3. The mean number of fissure sealed teeth was 2.5. About half of the participants showed signs of gum inflammation. The proportion of the adolescents living at home with their parents was 88%. More than 90% of them brushed their teeth by themselves without assistance. Conclusions.  Adolescents with intellectual disabilities seem to have benefited from various caries preventive

measures which had been introduced during the last two decades in Germany but still have a poorer oral health than the general population. More specific prevention programmes seeking close cooperation with parents, custodians, and caretakers should be developed. “
“International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry 2013; 23: 153–159 Background.  Hypophosphatasia (HP) is characterized by defective mineralization of bone and teeth because of deficient alkaline phosphatase activity. There are generally six recognized clinical forms, of which the most severe is often lethal prenatally or early in life. In milder forms, such as odontohypophosphatasia (OHP), premature exfoliation of primary teeth may be the only clinical manifestation. Case Report.

This observation is consistent with findings from other studies [9, 11, 17, 36, 37, 40, 44]. A recent study performed in Uganda found that only four out of 54 HIV-related deaths could be attributed to IRIS in a cohort of patients followed within the first 3 years after ART initiation [44]. It should be noted that three of these four deaths

were attributable to CNS infections. Regarding treatment of IRIS, we cannot draw any conclusions about the benefits of steroids from our study. Three of eight patients who received steroids died while none of the 10 patients who were not treated with steroids died. However, it should be noted that we probably treated patients with more severe clinical manifestations, because we did not have a previous protocol for steroid use in cases of IRIS. The limitations of our study are those inherent to its retrospective design. However, JNK inhibitor in our opinion, the results of this study, which covers 11 years after the introduction of HAART, provide

interesting information on the prognosis of patients with CNS opportunistic infections in the developed world. Nowadays it is difficult to obtain this kind of data because the number of incident cases is fortunately low. Another limitation is that the results of the study cannot be generalized world-wide, although the data are applicable to the developed world. In conclusion, despite the reduction in the incidence of CNS opportunistic infections, MRIP the prognosis is still poor in many cases. Efforts should be made to improve adherence to HAART Selleckchem RGFP966 and to diagnose HIV infection early in order to avoid the development of new cases of CNS infections. This study was supported by Red Temática de Investigación en SIDA (RIS G03/173-RETIC RD06/0006/0039). Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in relation to this study. “
“Because of the improved life expectancy provided by successful antiretroviral combination therapy, preventive health measures in HIV-infected patients have assumed increasing importance. To date, no data exist on rates of mucosal

abnormalities detected by screening colonoscopy in > 50-year-old HIV-infected patients in Germany. The aim of this study was to obtain such data. A screening colonoscopy was offered to 159 HIV-infected patients (age > 50 years) who presented for HIV standard of care visits at the infectious diseases out-patient clinic at the university hospital in Bonn over a 1-year period from February 2010. Pearson’s χ2 test, Fisher’s exact test and the Mann−Whitney U-test were used for statistical analysis. Fifty-one patients (32.1%) had undergone a screening colonoscopy in the past 10 years, and 45 patients (28.3%) were eventually screened in the observation period. The median age of the 96 screened patients (86% male and 14% female) was 58 years [interquartile range (IQR) 54–64 years].

, 2008). Demographic variables (age, gender and second-language experience; see Table 1) were entered at the first stage for control purposes only, and they did not predict any variance in AVMMR (R2 = 0.011, R2adj = 0; F3,18 = 0.07, P = 0.976). The variables that represent the looking time at the mouth during four speech ET conditions were entered at the second stage, and these predicted a significant proportion

of variance (R2change = 0.610; F4,14 = 5.65, P = 0.006). The final model was also significant (R2 = 0.622, R2adj = 0.433; F7,14 = 3.29, P = 0.028). Within the final model, only the looking time to the mouth during the VbaAga-combination was significant, showing that it alone predicted unique variance additional to the other looking times (beta = −0.784, P = 0.028). These results demonstrated a strong association Buparlisib supplier between the time spent looking at the mouth during the VbaAga-combination condition and the amplitude of the AVMMR in response selleck products to the same stimuli (see Fig. 1). For illustration purposes, the participants were split into two groups (see Table 2) according to their looking preferences (percentage of time spent looking at the mouth while watching the incongruent VbaAga stimuli). Ten

infants who spent > 50% of the total face-scanning time fixating Buspirone HCl the mouth in the VbaAga condition also looked significantly longer to the mouth in all other conditions (two-way anova, main effect of group: F1,20 = 12.91, P = 0.002, η2 = 0.39). They were assigned to the mouth-preference (MP) group (average ± SD

looking time to the mouth in all conditions 67.13 ± 15.2%; Table 2). The remaining 12 infants were assigned to the no-MP (NMP) group (average looking time to the mouth in all conditions 38.9 ± 20.6%). The AVMMR was only observed in the NMP group but not in the MP group. In the former, the AVMMR was clearly observed at the group level as a prolonged right frontocentral positivity (Fig. 2; for more channels see Supporting Information Figs S4 and S5). Although there was no significant association between the AVMMR amplitude and age in our regression model, for control purposes infants were split into the younger (6–7.5 months, n = 11) and the older group (7.5–9 months, n = 11) by median age (see Fig. S6). No difference in ERP responses to incongruent AV stimuli was found between the age groups in either time window (no effect of age; 140–240 ms, F1,20 = 0.11, P = 0.74; 290–390 ms, F1,20 = 2.7, P = 0.12; no age × condition interaction: 140–240 ms, F1,20 = 0.66, P = 0.42; 290–390 ms, F1,20 = 1.29, P = 0.27).

2 To reach an estimate about the compliance of ship owners with the requirement to carry an AED on board during the phase-in period from 2007 to 2012, the Ship Sanitation Committee of German Federal States questioned member states on their experience during the annual certification of the medical chests. It was found that 21% of German merchant vessels were equipped with an AED by the end of 2009 (M. Oldenburg, MD, unpublished data,

2010).3 However, it was observed that frequently the crew was not properly instructed in the handling of AEDs, that the devices were not mounted properly but locked in the ship’s infirmary, often even unwrapped, and that the location of the AEDs was not indicated by appropriate signs. As a consequence, a guideline for further specifications was published by the committee in 2009.4 The AED is part of the medical chest carried on board a ship for use while www.selleckchem.com/products/ganetespib-sta-9090.html at sea. The chest forms an essential part of the arrangements for managing any medical emergencies from ill-health or injury that may arise when the ship is distant from shore-based health care facilities. The other elements of these arrangements are The training provided for officers in medical first aid All these requirements are international instruments that maritime states are required to comply with through their own legislation and inspection regimes.5 It is

recognized that timely diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular 3-MA ic50 diseases of travelers at sea is critical for survival.6–8 On most merchant ships, a medical doctor is not available. Instead, the ship master is responsible for medical Astemizole care on board. He commonly delegates this task to the nautical officer on board who will consult the telemedical center if needed.9,10 Thus, the survival of sailors with cardiac arrest at sea also depends on the medical training of the nautical officers on board. Minimum requirements for the seafarers’ education are defined in the Standards of Training,

Certification, and Watchkeeping Convention 1995.11 In Germany, nautical students have to attend a compulsory comprehensive medical training over 4 weeks; subsequently, the nautical officers are obliged to attend medical refresher courses every 5 years.1 The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of training ship officers in the handling of AEDs and to explore their perceptions concerning their user-friendliness. The results of the study are meant to support decision making for ship owners 1 year before the phase-in period of the German regulation ends, and AEDs are obligatory for all merchant ships under German flag. The Hamburg Port Health Centre offers medical refresher courses for seafarers on a regular basis. From 2004 to 2007, the use of four commercially available AEDs was tested during 14 refresher courses (courses with 8–16 participants). All the seafarers without preexisting training and experience in the use of AEDs (130) participated in the study.

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Public Health. We are grateful to the Klinikum Bogenhausen (Munich, Germany) and the laboratories synlab (Dachau, Germany) selleck inhibitor and Becker, Olgemöller and Partner (Munich, Germany) for providing us with isolates of Enterobacter cloacae. We would like to

thank Henrike Skala and Anika Luze for invaluable technical assistance. “
“An enzyme with mannosyl glycoprotein endo-N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase (ENGase)-type activity was partially purified from the extracellular medium of the mould Hypocrea jecorina (Trichoderma reesei). Internal peptides were generated and used to identify the gene in the T. reesei genome. The active enzyme is processed both at the N- and at the C-terminus. High-mannose-type glycoproteins are good substrates, whereas complex-type glycans are not hydrolysed. The enzyme represents the first fungal member of glycoside hydrolase family Caspase inhibitor clinical trial 18 with ENGase-type activity. Bacterial ENGases and the fungal chitinases belonging to the same family show very low homology with Endo T. Database searches identify several highly homologous

genes in fungi and the activity is also found within other Trichoderma species. This ENGase activity, not coregulated with cellulase production, could be responsible for the extensive N-deglycosylation observed for several T. reesei cellulases. Enzymes with mannosyl glycoprotein endo-N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase (ENGase)-type activity (EC.3.2.1.96), acting

on the di-N-acetylchitobiosyl part of N-glycosidically linked oligosaccharides, constitute a group of related proteins, Tolmetin with members found in the glycoside hydrolase families 18, 73 and 85 (Carbohydrate Active Enzymes database at http://www.cazy.org/; Cantarel et al., 2008). The ENGases from family 18 are all of bacterial origin (e.g. Endo H from Streptomyces plicatus, Endo F1, F2 and F3 from Flavobacterium meningosepticum). From fungi for which only a few secreted ENGases have been reported, a sequence is only known for family GH85 Endo M from Mucor hiemalis (Fujita et al., 2004). Hypocrea jecorina (called Trichoderma reesei hereafter) is one of the most prolific producers of biomass-degrading enzymes (Lynd et al., 2002). Many of these extracellular cellulases and hemicellulases are bimodular glycoproteins, N-glycosylation seemingly restricted to the catalytic module (Klarskov et al., 1997; Maras et al., 1997; Bower et al., 1998; Harrison et al., 1998; Nevalainen et al., 1998; Hui et al., 2001, 2002; Eriksson et al., 2004). However, single N-acetylglucosamine residues were often found on N-glycosylation sites of isolated cellulase components (Klarskov et al., 1997; Bower et al., 1998; Nevalainen et al., 1998; Hui et al., 2001), suggesting the presence of ENGase activity. This was confirmed by our previous results (Stals et al.

The UK NCRN trial randomized patients with advanced-stage HL to ABVD versus Stanford V and demonstrated no significant differences in terms of PFS and OS [38]. An Italian randomized study compared ABVD x6–8 with BEACOPP (4 escalated + 4 baseline) in patients with advanced-stage HL or high-risk (according

to Hasenclever score) early-stage HL and showed that whereas BEACOPP resulted in a superior freedom from progression than ABVD (85% vs. 73%, respectively, at 7 years, p = 0.004), this was not translated Epacadostat supplier into a superior OS (7-year OS: 89% vs. 84%) as patients who failed ABVD could be rescued with second-line chemotherapy followed by high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell rescue (HDT-ASCR) [39]. Another randomized study, only presented in abstract form, confirms these results [40], as does a recent meta-analysis [41]. In most of the studies of advanced-stage HL, RT is given to residual masses or sites of bulky disease at diagnosis. Ongoing studies are assessing the role ROCK inhibitor of FDG-PET to enable omission of the RT. One large published series describing HIV patients treated with ABVD in the HAART era included 62 patients with advanced-stage HL and reported a CR rate of 87% with a 5-year event-free survival (EFS) and

5-year OS of 71% and 76%, respectively [42]. A recent study compared the outcome of patients with HL treated with ABVD according to their serological status and demonstrated comparable

results in terms of CR/CRu, EFS, disease-free survival (DFS) and OS for patients with and without HIV infection (Table 10.2) [17]. The analysis revealed no significant difference in response rate, EFS, DFS or OS between 93 HIV seropositive patients and 131 seronegative patients with HL, supporting the treatment of HIV-positive patients with HL with the same schedules as in HIV-negative patients. In this study, one of 93 HIV-positive patients died of neutropenic sepsis with a further patient dying of an opportunistic infection 1 year after finishing chemotherapy. There have not Elongation factor 2 kinase been studies comparing ABVD with more intensive regimens in the setting of HIV infection, but several Phase II studies have reported on the efficacy and toxicity of intensive regimens in this population. Spina et al. published results on 59 patients treated with the Stanford V chemotherapy regimen with G-CSF support and concomitant HAART. One-third of the patients could not complete the 12-week treatment plan and 31% required a dose reduction, with considerable myelotoxicity and nonhaematological toxicity. CR was achieved in 81% of the patients and after a median follow-up of only 17 months, the 3-year DFS was 68% and 3-year OS 51% [43]. A multicentre pilot study reported the use of the intensive BEACOPP chemotherapy in HIV-positive patients with HL. Twelve patients were included in this study, which started in the pre-HAART era.

apregistry.com This is the UK and Ireland’s surveillance

system for obstetric and paediatric HIV, based at the Institute of Child Health, University College London. HIV-positive children and children born to HIV-positive women are reported through the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit http://www.selleckchem.com/products/uk-371804-hcl.html of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, or in the case of some units with large caseloads, direct to the NSHPC. Diagnosed pregnant women are reported prospectively through a parallel reporting scheme run under the auspices of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Longer-term data on infected children are subsequently collected through the Collaborative HIV Paediatric Study (CHIPS). For further information see the NSHPC website (http://www.nshpc.ucl.ac.uk), the CHIPS website (http://www.chipscohort.ac.uk) or email NSHPC ([email protected]). 4.1.1 Sexual health screening is recommended for pregnant women newly diagnosed with HIV. Grading: 1B 4.1.2 For HIV-positive women already engaged in HIV care that

click here become pregnant sexual health screening is suggested. Grading: 2C 4.1.3 Genital tract infections should be treated according to BASHH guidelines. Grading: 1B There are few data regarding the prevalence of genital infections in HIV-positive women in the UK [15]. At present, the majority of pregnant HIV-positive women in the UK come from, and mostly acquired HIV in, sub-Saharan Africa where the prevalence of genital infections, particularly in the HIV-positive population, can be high [16]. Data from the unlinked anonymous survey of newborn infant

dried blood spots show that, while the prevalence Histamine H2 receptor of HIV infection among pregnant women born in sub-Saharan Africa has remained relatively stable in recent years, there has been a fourfold increase in prevalence among women born in Central America and the Caribbean rising from 0.21% in 2000 to 0.78% in 2009 [2]. A high prevalence of genital infections in women of Afro-Caribbean origin has been reported [17]. The diagnosis and treatment of genital infections in any individual have clear benefits in terms of both individual morbidity and possible infectivity to any sexual partner. In pregnancy, the welfare of the baby is an additional issue. However, apart from the recommendation that all pregnant women should be screened for HIV, HBV and syphilis, asymptomatic HIV-uninfected pregnant women in the UK are not routinely screened for genital infections. In HIV-positive pregnant women, additional considerations are the potential effects of the presence of a genital infection on MTCT of HIV-1. This could occur through an increase in the HIV-1 VL in the genital tract and/or the presence of chorioamnionitis. In addition, certain infections may be linked to premature birth, an event that occurs more frequently in HIV-positive women when compared with HIV-uninfected women.

Conflicts of interest: None of the authors have any conflicts of interest to

declare. “
“The C allele of the single nucleotide polymorphism rs12979860, located near the interleukin-28B (IL-28B) gene, has a strong impact on hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment response, as well as on spontaneous viral clearance. In patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC), genotype CC carriers harbour HCV genotype 3 more commonly than those with non-CC genotypes. The aim of this study was to compare the HCV genotype distributions, according to IL-28B genotype, in HIV-infected patients with CHC and those with acute hepatitis C (AHC). The rs12979860 genotype was determined by polymerase chain reaction Talazoparib (PCR) in two subpopulations of HIV-infected Ibrutinib patients. The first consisted of 80 German patients with AHC. The second consisted of 476 patients with CHC, belonging to one German and two Spanish cohorts. In the AHC group, 31 (81.6%) rs12979860 CC carriers were infected with HCV genotype 1 or 4 vs. 32 (76.2%) among non-CC carriers (P=0.948). In patients with CHC, among those with the CC genotype, 119 (54.6%) were infected with HCV genotype 1 or 4 and 99 (45.4%)

with genotype 2 or 3, whereas in the subset with non-CC genotypes, 200 (77.5%) harboured HCV genotype 1 or 4 and 58 (22.5%) genotype 2 or 3 (P<0.001). Among HIV-infected patients with CHC, those bearing the IL-28B genotype CC were more commonly infected with genotype 3 than subjects with non-CC genotypes, whereas in HIV-infected subjects with AHC this finding was not obtained. These results strongly suggest that the protective effect of the CC genotype against evolution to CHC is mainly

exerted in patients infected with HCV genotype 1 or 4. Interleukin-28B (IL-28B) genotype has a strong impact on both spontaneous hepatitis C virus (HCV) clearance and HCV clearance induced by treatment [1–10]. Studies focusing Oxymatrine on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) near the IL-28B gene have shown that the C allele of the SNP rs12979860 is an important predictor of treatment response both in HCV-monoinfected [1,4,10] and coinfected patients [7–9]. Interestingly, the effect of variations in IL-28B genotype is mainly seen in carriers of HCV genotype 1 or 4, while the impact on genotype 3 carriers, if any, is minimal [5,7,8]. In several reports [4,5,7,8,10], infection with HCV genotype 3 in those with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) has been shown to be significantly more prevalent among patients with the rs12979860 CC genotype than among those with non-CC genotypes. Theoretically, there are two possible explanations for this finding. On the one hand, the rs12979860 CC genotype might exert more protection against the acquisition of infection with HCV genotype 1 or 4 than against the acquisition of infection with HCV genotype 3.