National Center of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB)
Abstract
Background: Hepatitis C virus is a small, enveloped single stranded, positive sense RNA virus. Different genotypes are distributed in different geographical areas of the world. Determination of HCV genotype is a powerful tool for the treatment of chronic and acute liver disease.Method: The present study was carried out to find the occurrence of different HCV genotypes in the city of Lahore, a populous city of Pakistan from January 2010 to December 2010. Blood sample of patients positive for anti HCV by ELISA as well as HCV by PCR were collected and plasma was separated. HCV viral RNA load was analyzed in these samples using Real Time PCR. Qiagen HCV mini kit for RNA extraction and Qiagen HCV amplification kit for PCR amplification were used. Amplicons were subjected to HCV genotyping using Third Wave Technology.Results: Among 489 patients, 211 (43.1%) patients were males and 278 (56.9%) were females. Occurrence of HCV in the age group of 36-45 years was 32.5 %. Occurrence of HCV genotype 1 was 9.6% (47), genotype 3a was 80.77% (395), genotype 3h was 1.0% (5) , genotype 4 was 4.9% (24), co-infection of genotypes 1 & 2 was 0.2% (01), co-infection of genotypes 1 & 3 was 0.6% (03) and co-infection genotypes 1 & 4 was 0.4% (02).Conclusion: HCV genotype 3a is most prevalent HCV genotype in subjected population during said duration with most infected people from 26 to 35 years of age. Female population is having more of HCV infection as compared to males
