Distribution of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Genotype among Iraqi Hemodialysis Patients

Objectives: This study was established to assess the prevalence of HCV genotype among Iraqi hemodialysis patients Patients and methods: This case- control study was conducted at the Teaching laboratories of Baghdad Medical city in the period from August 2012 to July 2013. Genotyping was attempted on 100 HCV-infected Iraqi patients from different centers in the country. These included 55 males and 45 females with mean age 55.2 years . Testing for anti-HCV was done using the available commercial kits of the third generation enzyme immunoassay (Foresight-USA ). According to the manufacture instructions, a sample was considered positive if the optical density value was equal to or greater than that of a strong positive reaction control multiply by 0.2 (cut-off). The positive samples were re-tested in duplicate. Positive sera were then subjected to a confirmatory test using a PCR technique ( Amplicor HCV test; Hoffman-La Roche, Nutly, NJ, USA). HCV genotyping was performed on PCR HCV RNA-positive samples using a commercial line probe assay (Abbott-USA) Results:. HCV genotype 4 is found to be the predominant genotype among HCV-infected Iraqi patients (56%) followed by 1b (23%) and 1a (12%) and genotype 3 (9%). Conclusions: The predominance of HCV genotype 4 infection in Iraqi hemodialysis patients which is similar to the Arab countries in the Middle East, this will affect the duration and response to treatment.