Hepatitis C virus genotypes in a cohort of Middle Eastern patients

Background: The epidemiology of hepatitis C virus infection has been well c haracterized in Western Europe, North America and Japan. Less is known abou t it in other regions of the world. In order to fully understand the relati onship between host and virus, it is important to study the effect of virus infection in all regions of the world. In this report, we have analyzed pa tients from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan. Design and Methods: Serum from 81 Middle Eastern HCV ELISA-2-positive patie nts was analyzed fur the presence of HCV RNA by PCR. RNA-positive patients were genotyped by selective hybridization of amplicons to HCV genotype spec ific oligonucleotides (InnoLipa2, Innogenetics, Belgium). Where possible, d ata was also obtained on racial origin, liver histology, serum ALT, prothro mbin time, albumin, and risk factors for infection. Results: Sixty-five of 81 patients were HCV RNA-positive. A higher proporti on of Middle Eastern patients were genotype 4 compared to equivalent studie s from Western Europe, USA and Japan. However, the most common genotype was la. No significant difference in genotype was found between patients with chronic hepatitis and patients with cirrhosis. Conclusions: Eight of 65 (12%) patients were genotype 4, but the most commo n genotype was la, a "Western" genotype (24/65, 37%). The mean age of cirrh otics was low compared to Western studies. This may be due to infection in early childhood or race-related host factors. Twelve of 65 patients (18%) w ere not classifiable fur genotype using InnoLipa2. This may be due to multi ple infecting genotypes in these patients, or unusual, non 1-3 HCV genotype s which cannot be classified by InnoLipa2.