Updated hepatitis C virus genotype distribution in Adana, Turkey and an investigation of the association between genotype and viral RNA load

Nevzat Unal, Seyit Ahmet Bayık, Fatma Erdem, Akif Kucukcan

Adana City Training and Research Hospital, Department of Medical Microbiology, Adana, Turkey

Introduction: The management and treatment approach of chronic hepatitis C infection are closely related with HCV genotypes. In this study, we aimed to examine the HCV genotype distribution in  Adana.

Case Presentation: A total of 1002 patients who were HCV RNA positive and were admitted to Adana City Training and Research Hospital for HCV genotyping between 2011 and 2017 were included in this study. The distribution of HCV genotypes, subtypes, gender, viral RNA loads, AST and ALT levels were recorded. Genotype 1 was observed in 548 of the 1002 patients (54.7%), followed by genotype 3 (28.6%), genotype 2 (13.6%), and genotype 4 (2.7%), respectively. Subtype 1b was the most prevalent subtype (43.4%) followed by subtype 1a (7.8%), and subtype 3a (4.7%). Age and ALT levels were closely related with genotype distribution. No significant differences were found in median HCV RNA values of the patients infected with different genotypes.  

Conclusion: We describe the most recent data on genotype distribution of hepatitis C virus in Adana province. The present study confirms that genotype distributions vary with age, gender, and ALT levels.