Aid. De Gerbehaye et al., Age trend in hepatitis C virus genotype distribution as seen in a Brusselsteaching hospital, ACT CLIN B, 56(4), 2001, pp. 220-224
The hepatitis C virus genotype distribution was studied among age groups in
501 referred patients with chronic hepatitis C by INNO-LiPA HCV II (Innoge
netics, Belgium). Ten patients had coinfection with several genotypes. Two
hundred seventy of 491 singly infected individuals (57%) had lb, 66 (13.4%)
3a, 57 (11.6%) la. HCV subtype lb was predominant but its prevalence incre
ased with age (76.5% of patients born in the '20s, 39.3% in the '70s) (P <0
.0001). Three possibilities could explain the shift towards a wider variety
of genotypes in younger age. (1) lb could be the original subtype in this
population, (2) the non-lb subtypes could give less chronic carriers, (3) t
he non-1b subtypes could have a higher mortality, which seems improbable. T
he lb genotype seems the oldest subtype in our country while others were im
ported later through increased population movements and changing habits.