Molecular epidemiology of Hepatitis C virus genotypes in Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw of Pakistan

Abstract

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.

Diagnosis of hepatitis C virus infection by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay and reverse transcriptase‐nested polymerase chain reaction: A comparative evaluation

“…Laboratory assays that are available for the diagnosis and management of HCV infection include: (a) serological tests to detect HCV antibodies [enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)], (b) molecular tests to detect and quantitate HCV RNA, and (c) genotyping (6,7). Serological assays for detecting anti-HCV antibody cannot distinguish between patients with active infection and those who have cleared the virus, and due to the absence of an efficient in vitro culture system for HCV or assays capable of detecting viral antigens, direct detection of HCV has depended on nucleic acid amplification technology (NAT) techniques (8).…”

A Review of Hepatitis C in the General Population in Pakistan

“…There are various studies that have established a relationship between genotype and their distribution pattern for better understanding of epidemiological complications (40,41,42,43,44,45). However, genotype determination is an expensive procedure which is carried out by sequencing HCV genome at 5'untranslated region or NS5b region (49). Several research groups have shown that HCV infection genotype 3a is most prevalent in Pakistan, followed by untypeable and 1a genotypes (35,50,52).…”

HVSI polymorphism indicates multiple origins of mtDNA in the Hazarewal population of Northern Pakistan

“…The heritage of Pakistan, which can be traced back to the Indus valley civilization in 2500 BC, has been very well preserved (Mezzera and Aftab, 2009;Ali et al, 2010). Pakistan has a population exceeding 170 million (Jaffery and Sadaqat, 2006), which has been divided into 31 administrative divisions.…”