Abstract
Hepatitis C virus has been considered to be one of the most important devastating causes of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatic cellular carcinoma. In this area, the epidemiology of hepatitis C is not well understandable in spite it was found to be endemic in Yemen.The distribution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes in the Yemen is unknown, so a molecular study was carried to investigate the prevalence of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes in HCV infected population of Sana’a, Yemen. A total of 502 HCV-positive clinical specimens (serum, EDTA plasma) with viral loads above 2,000 IU/ml were collected for genotyping. Genotyping of 502 samples revealed four different genotypes including 1 (1a and 1b), 2a, 3 (3a) and 4. The most prevalent genotype was 4 with rate of 63.7% followed by genotype 1a+1b (26.9%), 2a (7.6%) and 3a (1.8%). Genotypes 5 and 6 were not found in our patients. The predominance of HCV genotype 4 in our population confirms the predominance of HCV genotype 4 in Yemen and similar to most of the Arab countries in the Middle East.
Highlights
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a global public health problem
HCV genotype 1, 2 and 3 are distributed worldwide and their relative prevalence varies from one geographic area to another, whereas genotype 4 is predominantly prevalent in the Middle East and Africa, genotype 5 in South Africa and genotype 6 in South East Asia [5,6,10,11,12]
Genotype 4 is predominant in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, 4 and 1 in Kuwait and Syria, and genotype 1 in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran [13,14,15,16,17]
Summary
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a global public health problem. World Health Organization (WHO) estimates up to 3% of the world’s population to be infected with HCV and there are approximately 180 million individuals are thought to be infected. HCV genotypes display significant differences in their global distribution and prevalence, making genotyping a useful method for determining the source of HCV transmission in an infected localized population [8,9]. Several studies from the end of 1990 and early 2000 found a low rate of endemicity for HCV, with 0.5% to 2% of blood donors from Sana’a and Aden and among an ethnically African group living in Sana’a (5%) and on the island of Soqotra (5%) [18]. By 2010, the prevalence of HCV infection in general population had declined to 1% or less [19]. Blood donor results have shown a steady decrease in HCV infection in which the prevalence declined from 5% in 2002 [18,20] to 1.3% in 2012 [19]. On the other hand HCV genotype prevalence rate and the role of this agent in acute and chronic liver disease and genotype response to treatment in Yemen is absent or at least poorly understood, so this study was carried out as the first study to detected the genotype prevalence rate of HCV and response to treatment in Yemen (published elsewhere)
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