1. Geographic variation of genotype 6 hepatitis C virus infection in an endemic area of southern Taiwan.
- Author
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Tung, Hung-Da, Lee, Pei-Lun, Chen, Jyh-Jou, Kuo, Hsing-Tao, Sheu, Ming-Jen, Cheng, Chun-Ta, Chuang, Tang-Wei, Kao, Hsu-Ju, Hou, Chia-Yi, Tsai, Hsin-Hua, Wu, Li-Ching, and Lee, Chuan
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HEPATITIS C virus ,ENDEMIC diseases ,VIRUS diseases ,GENOTYPES ,SPATIAL variation - Abstract
Taiwan is a hepatitis C virus (HCV) endemic country with geographic variation of prevalence and main genotypes(GTs) are 1 b and 2a. We recently reported high GT6 prevalence in Tainan of southern Taiwan. To clarify this special genotype as a local endemic disease and its geographic variation, the prevalence rates of HCV GTs of 37 districts of Tainan were analyzed. A total of 3040 patients with HCV viremia were enrolled. The prevalence rates of HCV GT 1a, 1 b, 2, 3, 4, 6 and mixed types were 3.9%, 31.6%, 45.9%, 0.6%, 0.2%, 17.1% and 0.5% respectively. GT6 prevalence showed marked variation from 0 to 39.2%. Four districts with GT6 prevalence >30% are located between Jishui and Zengwen rivers. Preliminary subtyping data were 6 g/a/w. This geographic variation with spatial restriction by two rivers with 6 g/w is suggestive of local endemic infection of preexisting GT 6 HCV for centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
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