LAUSR

Our reported data on surprisingly high prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) recombinant genotype (GT) RF1_2k/1b in Georgia, which appears to be the highest so far reported worldwide, raised a question of probable existence and prevalence of recombinant strains in other HCV genotypes in Georgia. Despite the fact that only RF1_2k/1b has been shown to be actively circulating in the general population, other intergenotype or intersubtype recombinants have also been described. In the evaluation process of RF1_2k/1b in GT2 patients with sequencing of core- and nonstructural (NS) 5B genes, we also performed partial sequencing of the same genes in all other HCV genotypes assessed by INNO-LiPA VERSANT HCV Genotype 2.0, a second generation line probe assay containing probes targeting the 5' non-coding region from October 2013 to October 2015. During this period 649 subjects with GT1 and GT3 were identified. From those 53% (n=344) were GT1 and 47% (n=305) - GT3. Among genotype 1 patients majority were subtype 1b (n=330) and all of genotype 3 were subtype 3a. Out of 649 patients 81% (n=525) were male and 70% of patients were distributed in 40 to 60 age group (n=455). No intergenotype or intersubtype recombinant variations were observed among study group. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.