DISTRIBUTION FREQUENCY OF HEPATITIS C VIRUS GENOTYPES IN PATIENTS ATTENDING LIAQUAT UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL JAMSHORO/HYDERABAD

Objective: to assess the frequency of different genotypes of hepatitis c virus in patients attending liaquat university hospital (luh) jamshoro sindh. methodology: this descriptive cross sectional study was carried out at department of medicine at liaquat university hospital jamshoro from june to december 2012. a total of 107 patients with hepatitis c fulfilling the selection criteria and with informed consent were included in the study. blood samples were taken from patients for hcv genotyping. a qualified pathologist performed hcv genotyping. results: total 107 patients of hepatitis c were selected by non probability consecutive sampling. mean age was 36.58 ± 10.5 years. fifty six (52.3%) were male and fifty one (47.7%) were female. the commonest genotype was genotype 3 (72.9%) followed by genotype 2 (18.7%), genotype 1 (7.5%) and genotype 4 (0.9%). the commonest hcv genotype 3 subtype was subtype a (73.8%) followed by subtype b (25.2%) and subtype c (0.9%). conclusion: hcv genotype 3 with distribution frequency of 72.9% and subtype a with distribution frequency of 73.8% were the commonest in our study population.