Hepatitis C virus genotype distribution in Ordu province

Abstract

Aim: It is important to increase the number of studies on genotype distributions from different centers and regions of the country in terms of identifying the HCV genotype distribution in the whole country in general and creating appropriate treatment algorithms. Our study aimed to identify the HCV genotype distribution in patients infected with HCV attending our hospital in Ordu Province in the Central Black Sea region. Material and Method: The study included a total of 196 patients whose samples were sent to our laboratory for HCV viral load measurements from January 2016 to May 2018 with HCV-RNA positivity identified. Genotype definition was completed with the real-time PCR method. Results: It was observed that 4 patients (2%) had genotype 1, 7 patients (3.6%) had genotype 1a, 179 patients (91.4%) had genotype 1b, 5 patients (2.5%) had genotype 3 and 1 patient (0.5%) had genotype 4. Discussion: The most common genotype observed among patients attending our hospital was genotype 1. Genotypes 3 and 4 were rarely observed in comparison to Turkish data, similar to other provinces in regions receiving little migration. As medication resistance and treatment failure is high for genotype 1, the risk of encountering treatment failure continues to be a serious problem in our region.