HBV Genotyping in HBsAg-Positive Blood Donors from Southwestern Iran

In most asian countries, with a general carrier rate of 5%–35%, hepatitis b virus (hbv) infection is hyperendemic (1). hbv is a member of hepadnaviridae, a family of enveloped hepatotropic dna viruses. it has a circular, partially double-stranded dna of 3200 nt (2). this virus can cause severe liver disease with eventual progression to cirrhosis and primary hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc) (3). hbv possesses a high genetic variability which gives rise to the well-recognized subtypes and genotypes of the virus. in addition, many virus variants are arisen during replication, as a result of nucleotide misincorporation, for lack of any proof-reading mechanisms in the viral polymerase (4).