Frequency and Genotype Distribution of Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Patients With Diabetes Type 2 in Ahvaz, Iran

Background and objectives: diabetes is recognized as a great concern and a public health problem worldwide. several factors including environmental and genetic factors have been involved. recently, infectious agents such as hepatitis c virus (hcv) have been reported to be associated with diabetes. thus, this study was conducted to determine the frequency of hcv infection among patients with diabetes type 2 in ahvaz city, iran. materials and methods: a case-control study design was conducted at ahvaz jundishapur university of medical sciences. a total of 600 study subjects were included in this research. all the patient sera were tested for anti- hcv antibody, hbsag, and hiv antibody. the sera of positive anti-hcv antibody, were assayed for 5'- utr and core regions of the hcv genome by nested rt-pcr. finally, the hcv genotyping was determined by sequencing. results: the prevalence of hcv in type 2 diabetes and nondiabetic controls was 2% and 0.33%, respectively. the distribution of hcv genotypes among the hcv-positive patients were 3a (1.66%) and 1a (0.33%). conclusion: to control and improve the treatment, the screening of hcv infection with anti-hcv antibody was followed by molecular techniques such as pcr and hcv genotyping which should be implemented for all patients with diabetes type 2.