Six major Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes and hundreds of subtypes have been identified globally. All these genotypes are generally studied for epidemiology, their vaccine development and clinical management. This article comments the frequency distribution of various HCV genotypes circulate in different areas/districts of Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw Province of Pakistan. Sum of 415 HCV RNA PCR positive sera samples were tested by a molecular genotyping assay. Data analysis revealed that out of these 415 HCV RNA positive patients 243 were males and 172 were females. Distribution breakup of the patients was 135, 58, 51, 51, 36, 32, 6, 7and 9 patients come from the districts of Abbottabad, Mardan, Pehawar, Swat, Haripure, Swabi and Dera Ismail Khan, respectively. Out of the tested samples, genotype specific PCR fragments were observed in 299 (74.82%) patient serum samples. The distribution of genotypes of the typeable samples was as fallows: 3 patients (0.72%) each were infected with genotype 1a and genotype 1b; 240 patients (80.26%) of genotype 3a; 25 patients (6.00%) genotype 3b; and 28 patients (6.73%) were observed as with mixed genotypic infection. Sums of 116 serum samples (27.88%) were still found untypeable by the used molecular genotyping system.In conclusion, HCV genotypes 1a, 1b, 3a and 3b are distributed in various parts of KPK among which the genotype 3a is the most frequent genotype.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the leading cause of chronic hepatitis worldwide and its subtypes/genotypes are clinically important for clinical management and vaccine development. The present study describes frequency distribution of different HCV genotypes and their treatment status in HCV RNA positive patients from district Swat. A total of 185 HCV infected sera were analyzed by molecular genotyping assay. The most prevalent genotype was 3a (34.1%), followed by 2a (8.1%), 3b (7%) and 1a (5.4%). The samples found untypable by the present method of genotypes was 37.8% while, patients with mixed genotype infections were 7.6%. More than 80% of untypable cases were from those HCV patients who had received interferon plus ribavirin standard therapy in the past and either were non-responders and were relapsed thereafter or were under treatment. In conclusion, genotype 3a is the most prevalent HCV genotype in the region. A high prevalence rate of untypable genotypes is present in treated patients that need further investigation for the successful genotyping by developing new assays or using viral sequencing method.

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Implantable medical devices (IMDs) are surgically implanted into a human body to collect physiological data and perform medical therapeutic functions. They are increasingly being used to improve the quality of life of patients by treating chronic ailments such as cardiac arrhythmia, diabetes, and Parkinson's disease. However, recent research has demonstrated the deficiency of wireless IMDs in enforcing security and privacy, and discussed the impact of these attacks on the patient's safety and efficacy of medical treatments. This paper provides an overview of the main vulnerabilities of IMDs. It also reviews the recent research on IMD security and privacy, and discusses their advantages and limitations. In this paper, we also describe the main requirements for improving security of IMDs and identify and discuss a set of research challenges for designing the next generation of secure wireless IMDs. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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The Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is a group of heritable connective tissue disorders. Common features of EDS include skin hyperextensibility, articular hypermobility, and tissue fragility. It is classified into 13 subtypes, caused by variations of more than 19 different genes. Among these two subtypes, EDS musculocontractural type 1 (EDSMC1/mcEDS-CHST14; MIM# 601776) is caused by biallelic mutations in the CHST14 gene (MIM# 608429) on chromosome 15q14 and EDS musculocontractural type 2 (EDSMC2/mcEDS-DSE;MIM#615539) is caused by a mutation in DSE (MIM# 605942) on chromosome 6q22. In this study, clinical and molecular diagnoses have been performed for a consanguineous Pakistani (Pakhtun) family with five affected siblings, presenting mcEDS-DSE phenotype. Whole-exome sequencing analysis identified a novel homozygous DSE variant (NM_001080976.1; c.2813T>A, p.Val938Asp) in the proband. Sanger sequencing in all available affected members and their obligate carriers confirmed autosomal recessive segregation of the diseased allele. To the best of our knowledge, this variant identified is novel and expands the DSE pathogenicity leading to EDS, musculocontractural type 2. The result obtained has the potential to help in early diagnosis, genetic counseling, and possible therapeutic inventions.

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