Distribution of Hepatitis C Virus Genotypes in Patients Diagnosed with Hepatitis C in Our Hospital: 2015-2018

Abstract

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate the distribution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype and its variability in certain sociodemographics in patients with chronic hepatitis.

Materials and Methods: Anti-HCV was performed by chemiluminescent micro-particle immune assay (Abbott Architect i2000SR, Germany), and HCV-RNA viral load detection was applied with real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in the system (Cobas AmpliPrep-Cobas TaqMan, Roche, Germany). Genotype detection was performed with RT-PCR upon with RT-PCR method in the system of Abbott RT-HCV Genotype 2 (Abbott Laboratories, USA) and with Bosphore-HCV Genotyping KitV3 in the Montania 4896 device (Anatolia Diagnostics and Biotechnology Products, Turkey). Frequency and percentage dispersions of all data obtained from patient files and laboratory information system were evaluated through the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences statistics software program.

Results: HCV-RNA was positive in 628 of 2,381 patients with anti-HCV positivity (26.4%), and genotypes of 319 of which were evaluated. Mean age of 319 patients was 51.6 (standard deviation: 16.1). The most frequent genotypes were 1b (61%), 3 (19%), and 1a (10%). Incidences of genotype 1b among all genotypes between the dates of 2015-2018, were found 34.7%, 29%, 15.5% and 20.7% respectively (p=0.001). Contagion sources were medical interventions, and 1 b was the most frequent genotype. Genotype 3 was most common in patients with intravenous drug addiction. A total of 168 of 238 patients who were Turkish citizens were detected to have genotype 1 b, whereas 28 of them had genotype 3 and 25 had genotype 1a. Seventy-eight (24.7%) of the 316 patients, whose genotypes were tested, were foreigners coming mostly from Georgia, Turkmenstan, and Syria respectively. The most frequent genotype of Georgian and Turkmenistanian was 1 b and Syrian was both 1a and 4.

Conclusion: This study shows the most frequent genotype to be 1b and its prevalence is statistically decreased over the years, whereae other genotypes (1a, 3, 4, 3a, 1a/3, 1b/3, c-k, 2/3, 1/4, 3/4, and 5) increased.