Original Article - No association between seropositivity for Hepatitis C virus and lichen planus: A case control study

Background: The epidemiological association of lichen planus (LP) with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been recorded from some countries and HCV RNA3 has been isolated from lesional skin in patients with LP and chronic HCV infection. The observed geographical differences regarding HCV infection and LP could be immuno-genetically related. Aim: To determine whether HCV has a causal relationship with LP. Methods: Histopathologically proved cases of LP were subjected to antibody to HCV test by the Third Generation Enzyme Immunoassay Kit for the detection of antibody to HCV (Anti-HCV) in human serum or plasma. They were routinely screened in the virology department by the reagent kit, HIVASE 1 + 2, adopting the "direct sandwich principle" for the assay to detect antibodies to HIV-1 and/or HIV-2. There were 150 age and sex matched controls (not suffering from LP) and HIV-I and II negative, and negative for HCV. Results: Of the 104 patients studied only 2 patients (1.92%) of generalized LP with disease duration of more than 3 months were found to be positive for antibodies to HCV. This was not a significant finding and no statistical methods, e.g. Chi square test etc. could be applied. Conclusion: Hepatitis C virus is not significant to the causation of LP in India

Genomic Characterization of Nipah Virus, West Bengal, India

An intrafamilial outbreak in West Bengal, India, involving 5 deaths and person-to-person transmission was attributed to Nipah virus. Full-genome sequence of Nipah virus (18,252 nt) amplified from lung tissue showed 99.2% nt and 99.8% aa identity with the Bangladesh-2004 isolate, suggesting a common source of the virus