Most human pegivirus 2 (HPgV-2) infections are associated with past or current hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. HPgV-2 is thought to be a bloodborne virus: higher prevalence of active infection has been found in populations with a history of parenteral exposure to viruses. We evaluated longitudinally collected blood samples obtained from injection drug users (IDUs) for active and resolved HPgV-2 infections using a combination of HPgV-2-specific molecular and serologic tests. We found evidence of HPgV-2 infection in 11.2% (22/197) of past or current HCV-infected IDUs, compared with 1.9% (4/205) of an HCV-negative IDU population. Testing of available longitudinal blood samples from HPgV-2-positive participants identified 5 with chronic infection (>6 months viremia in >3 timepoints); 2 were identified among the HCV-positive IDUs and 3 among the HCV-negative IDUs. Our findings indicate that HPgV-2 can establish chronic infection and replicate in the absence of HCV.

中文翻译：

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无丙型肝炎病毒共感染的慢性人类Pegivirus 2。

大多数人类pegivirus 2（HPgV-2）感染与过去或当前的丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染相关。HPgV-2被认为是一种血源性病毒：在有肠胃外接触病毒史的人群中发现主动感染的患病率更高。我们结合使用HPgV-2特异性分子和血清学检测方法，评估了从注射吸毒者（IDU）获得的纵向采集的血液样本中是否存在活跃和已解决的HPgV-2感染。我们发现，过去或当前感染HCV的IDU中有11.2％（22/197）感染HPgV-2的证据，而HCV阴性IDU人群中有1.9％（4/205）。对来自HPgV-2阳性参与者的可用纵向血液样本进行测试，发现5例患有慢性感染（在3个以上的时间点中病毒血症> 6个月）；在HCV阳性IDU中鉴定出2个，在HCV阴性IDU中鉴定出3个。我们的发现表明，HPgV-2可以建立慢性感染并在没有HCV的情况下复制。