| Abstract The presented study had two objectives. The first was to examine distributions of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) genotypes in Sindh, Pakistan, where HCV is prevalent. The other was to explore clinically relevant relationships between the genotypes, viral load (measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction assays) and biochemical markers. For this, 1471 HCV-infected patients in six cities in Sindh were recruited and sampled. HCV genotype distributions varied among the cities, but genotype 3a was most prevalent, followed by 3b, 1a and 1b (detected in 51.5, 22.7. 9.25 and 3.2% of the cases, respectively). No type-specific sequences were detected in serum samples from 189 (12.8%) of the 1471 patients. Frequencies of low (<200,000 IU/mL serum),... |
