Distribution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes in a Saudi Arabian hospital during the 2015-2020 period

Fadel Ali M Almosa; Ali Hassan A Alnasser; Jaffar A Al-Tawfiq

doi:10.53854/liim-2903-16

Distribution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes in a Saudi Arabian hospital during the 2015-2020 period

Infez Med. 2021 Sep 10;29(3):450-455. doi: 10.53854/liim-2903-16. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Fadel Ali M Almosa¹, Ali Hassan A Alnasser², Jaffar A Al-Tawfiq^{3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Gastroenterology Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Qatif Central Hospital, Ministry of Health, Qatif, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Laboratory, Dhahran Eye Specialist Hospital, Ministry of Health, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
³ Infectious Disease Unit, Specialty Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
⁵ Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the leading cause of chronic liver disease. HCV genotypes and subtypes are important predictors of disease progression and antiviral treatment response. To our knowledge, there had been limited studies of HCV genotypes in Qatif, Saudi Arabia. This study aims to assess the distribution of HCV genotypes in Qatif Central Hospital, Qatif, Saudi Arabia. This is a retrospective study of adult patients with HCV infection between January 2015 and December 2020. Only patients with documented HCV genotyping were included. A total of 356 HCVinfected patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were included in further analysis. Of those patients, 179 (50.3%) were males, and most were Saudi (N=347, 97.5%). The median age was 60 years, and 191 (53.7%) were 50-69 years of age. Genotype 2 was present in 118 (33.1%) of the patients, followed by genotype 4 in 92 (25.8%), genotype 1B in 62 (17.4%), and genotype 1A in 37 (10.4%). The study showed that HCV genotype 2 is the predominant variant among chronic HCV patients in the study population. Monitoring the epidemiology of HCV genotypes may provide guidance in treatment decisions.

Keywords: HCV epidemiology; HCV prevalence; HCV viral RNA load; antiretroviral therapy.