Genotype Distribution of Hepatitis C Virus in Patients with Liver Disease

Abstract

It has been suggested that different genotypes have different clinical outcomes with regard to disease severity and response to interferon treatment. We studied the distribution of hepatitis C virus genotypes in 29 patients with liver disease by polymerase chain reaction with capsid - specific primers. Hepatitis C virus genotype lb(Ⅱ) was present in 15 patients(51.7%), and 2a(Ⅲ) in 6(20.6%). Five parients(17.2%) had evidence of dual infectiondype lb(Ⅱ) and type 2a(Ⅲ)). Three patients were untypable by the method used. These data showed that two genotypes, type lb(Ⅱ) and 2a(Ⅲ) account for most cases in our cohort of patients with a relatively higher frequency of type lb(Ⅱ).