DISTRIBUTION OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS GENOTYPES AMONG BLOOD-DONORS IN TAIWAN

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and distributi on of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes of blood donors in Taiwan. RNA was extracted from the serum of anti-hepatitis C virus-positive carri ers and this was followed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain re action (RT-PCR) using type-specific primers for the presence of HCV ge notypes, 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 3a and 6a. Of the 604 anti-HCV-positive speci mens, the PCR demonstrated that 93.0% (562/604) were positive for at l east one HCV genotype. The remaining 42 specimens (7%) were HCV negati ve. Among the 562 HCV-positive specimens, 505 (89.8%) contained HCV la , Ib, 2a, 2b and 3a as the only genotype, with a prevalence of 0.4% (2 /562), 60.1% (338/562), 15.5% (87/562), 11.9% (67/562), and 2.0% (11/5 62), respectively. No HCV genotype 6a was found. Thirty-seven specimen s (6.6%) exhibited mixed infections with multiple HCV genotypes chat i ncluded types 1b, 2a and 2b, while 20 (3.5%) HCV RNA-positive sera rem ained unclassified. These results confirm that the predominant HCV gen otype in Taiwan is 1b. In addition, genotypes la and 3a can also be fo und in Taiwan at low frequency.