PREVALENCE OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS GENOTYPES IN SOUTHERN ITALY

HCV is ubiquitous. In 50% of all cases it causes chronic hepatitis tha t often evolves into liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Rec ently HCV has been classified in 5 genotypes by Okamoto. The purpose o f this study is to evaluate the prevalence of 5 genotypes in Campania, a region of southern Italy, where the prevalence of anti-HCV antibodi es ranges from 0.87 to 4%, and to evaluate the correlation between the HCV genotypes and the severity of histological damage. One-hundred-an d-thirty-five anti-HCV positive patients were enrolled and tested by P CR to identify HCV-RNA. One-hundred-and-twenty-four patients resulted HCV-RNA positive. Genotyping was performed as described by Okamoto et al. with minor modifications of the specific primer to type III propos ed by Silini et al. Eight patients were negative for all genotypes. Ei ght patients were positive for type I(1a), 61 for type II(1b), 39 for type III(2a), 11 for type IV(2b) and 1 for type V(3a). In 4 cases two different genotypes were present in the same sample [II(1b)-IV(2b), II I(2a)-II(1b) twice, III(2a)-IV(2b)]. Histological evaluation of liver damage showed: CPH (22 cases), minimal CAH (56), severe CAH (31) and l iver cirrhosis (15). There was no statistically significant correlatio n between the 5 genotypes and the severity of histological damage. Dat a on the prevalence of genotype II(1b) in Italy are similar to those r eported for other European countries. The prevalence of genotypes in s outhern Italy is similar to that reported in the population of norther n Italy.