GEOGRAPI-IIC DISTRIBUTION OF HCV GENOTYPES IN AREAS OF PUNJAB AND KP

Abstract

Hepat itis C virus (HCV) is a life-threatening virus that infects 177 million people globall y. The virus has high prevalence and persi stent HCV infection shows potentially seri ous complications . A severe form of infection leads to cirrhosis, hepatoce llul ar carcinoma, and end-stage liver disease. All HCV genotypes have th eir parti cular geographi cal di stribution pattern s and a sli ght change in v iral popul ation has been observed in some parts of the world. The genotype of the infecting quasi species plays an important role in the investigation of many aspects of HCV infection including epidemiology, pathogenesis, and response to anti viral treatment. This study was conducted to assess the various HCV genotype frequencies in infected pat ients from districts of Khyber Pakhtunld1wa and Punjab and th eir poss ible route of transmi ss ion . Serums samples of 61 0 randomly se lected pati ents subj ected to reverse tran sc riptase (RT-PCR) and nested PCR were included in th is study. The age d istribution ranged from 12 to 80 years with mean age of 43.6 yea rs. The frequency of different genotypes among pati ents was assessed acco rding to gender, age, and geographi cal region. Out of 61 0 serum samples, type specific fragments were observed in 544 samples. Genotypic distributions of the typable sample were determined as follows: 510 (72.41 %) Genotype 3a, 34 (5.6 1%) Genotype3b, 13( 1.93%) Genotype2a,5 1 (8.7 1%) 3a+3b mix genotype, 1(0.15%) genotype 4. HCV RNA positive sample was not typed in 31 (5.57%) patients by this genotyping system. Tn Punj ab and Khyber Pald1tunJd1wa, genotype 3a was the most freq uent. This genotype 3a was hi ghly prevalent in female pati ents above 40 years of age. Most of the infected pat ients had a hi story of surgery and shaving by barbers. This set of data is a slight indi cation of genotypic di stribution in few distri cts of Punjab and KP and endorse the results of previous studi es. However, nationwide studies are required to access the actual genotypic di vers ity ofHCV in the country. XII