Objective: To analyse the frequency of various hepatitis C virus genotypes in different populations with HCV infection from Guizhou area.
Methods: Ninty-eight HCV isolates obtained by using RT-nested PCR from 37 patients with chronic hepatitis C (PHCs), 15 patients with hemopathy (PHs), 12 blood donors (BDs) and 34 intravenous drug-users (IVDUs) were genotyped by using the second generation line probe assay.
Results: Among 37 HCV isolates from PHCs, there were 34 (91.9%) genotype 1b, 3 (8.1%) mixted genotypes (1 for 1a + 1b, 1 for 1b + 2, 1 for 1a + 1b + 2a/2c, respectively). Among 15 PHs, 14 (93.3%) were type 1b, 1(6.7%) were type 1b + 2, among 12 BDs, all(100.0%) were type 1b. Among 34 IVDUs, 13(38.2%) were type 1b, 10(29.4%) were type 6a, 1(2.9%) was type 3a, 4(11.8%) were type 3b and 6(17.6%) were mixed types(2 for 1a + 2, 1 for 1a, 1b + 2, 1 for 1b + 3b, 1 for 3b + 2, 1 for 1b + 6a, respectively).
Conclusion: The results showed that HCV subtypes 1a, 1b, 2a/2c, 3a, 3b and 6a belonging to 4 HCV genotypes(1,2,3,6) were found from different populations in Guizhou, of these, 3a, 3b and 6a were only found in IVDUs and their total frequency was above 50%.