The Distributions of HCV Genotypes in Hemodialysis Patients in Iraq

Abstract

Background and Aims: Hepatitis C virus is a major global health problem that primarily affects the liver which lead to liver cirrhosis, liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma. The aim of this report was to investigate the genotypes of HCV in patients on regular hemodialysis in Iraq. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted to investigate the genotypes of HCV in patients on regular hemodialysis in 7 centers across Iraq. A total of 255 subjects with positive anti-HCV antibodies were recruited in this study. Results: To confirm the positivity, RT-PCR was performed. Amongst all samples, 31% (79/255) was positive by RT-PCR. Then, we genotyped all the RT-PCR positive samples, it was found that 39/79 (49.4 %) of our samples were typed as HCV genotype 1 including 26 samples (66.7%) as HCV 1a and 13 samples (33.3%) as HCV 1b. HCV genotype 4 was found in 34/79 (43%) of the samples while 6/79 (7.6%) of the samples typed as HCV 3 Conclusion: HCV genotype 1 was the most prevalent genotype followed by genotype 4. Further population-based study is required to investigate the prevalence of HCV genotypes