{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.035046728971962614, 'fraction_numerical': 0.012850467289719626, 'mean_word_length': 4.86986301369863, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Prevalence and Sequence Variability of GBV-C Genomes among Blood Donors in Northern Germany

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of variable strains of GBV-C among blood donors in Lower Saxony (Northern Germany) and to study the genetic variability. Material and Methods: Sera of 1,011 volunteer blood donors were tested for GBV-C genomes by RT-PCR using primer pairs which amplify portions of the NS5a and 5''-NCR regions. Results: A frequency of 1.98% GBV-C-positive blood donors was observed. While the Lower Saxony strains were relatively conserved in the 5''-NCR region, the NS5a region showed a higher degree of diversity. Conclusions: Phylogenetic sequence analysis revealed that Lower Saxonian, Spanish and North American GBV-C strains were relatively closely related and showed a great diversity to Asian GBV-C isolates.