CLINICAL-FEATURES OF PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC LIVER-DISEASE ASSOCIATED WITH HEPATITIS-C VIRUS GENOTYPE 1A I IN OKINAWA, JAPAN/

The clinical characteristics of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) carrie rs with HCV genotype 1a/I infection were investigated and compared wit h those of chronic HCV carriers infected with 1b/II, 2a/III, 2b/IV and the mixed type of infection. We found that 16 of 408 (3.9%) carriers had HCV genotype 1a infection, comprising four of 67 (6.0%) blood dono rs, 11 of 263 (4.2%) patients with chronic hepatitis and one of 39 (2. 6%) patients with liver cirrhosis. Three of 408 subjects had a mixed i nfection of genotypes 1a/I and 1b/II. All carriers with genotype 1a (i ncluding those with the mixed infection) were of Japanese origin and a ll, except one who was born in Brazil, were born in Okinawa Prefecture . Nine of 14 patients infected with genotype 1a for whom medical recor ds were obtained had a history suggestive of infection through blood e xposure; six had had blood transfusions, one had tattoos, one is a nur se and one had a history of drug addiction. There were no haemophiliac s or other multitransfused patients in the genotype 1a group. Of 10 pa tients infected with genotype 1a who received interferon (IFN) therapy , four (40%) showed a complete response. Although the small number of patients infected with genotype 1a in the present study precluded stat istical analysis of the response to IFN, the response in patients with genotype 1a was better than the response in those infected with genot ype 1b and poorer than the response in those patients infected with ge notype 2a/III or 2b/IV.