High prevalence of hepatitis C virus type 5 in central France evidenced by a prospective study from 1996 to 2002.
From 1996 to 2002, hepatitis C virus (HCV) typing was prospectively performed for 1,281 unselected HCV-infected and viremic patients, irrespective of their clinical status. Eighty-three patients (6.5%) were coinfected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and HCV. A total of 1,195 strains were identified by a serotype screening (Murex HCV Serotyping 1-6 assay) and/or genotyping (Inno-LiPA HCV II) test. The distribution of HCV types showed an unusually high rate of type 5 (14.2%) that was stable over time and was the third most frequent type, after type 1 (59.1%) and type 3 (15.1%). HCV type 5 was more frequent in patients who were older than 50 (P = 10(-6)), but its frequency did not differ significantly by gender (P = 0.21). Serotyping was performed for 1,160 strains but failed for 30.2% of them. The efficiency depended on HIV status (for HCV-HIV-coinfected patients, half of the strains were untypeable) and HCV type. Genotyping was performed for 428 samples, with an overall efficiency of 99.3%. It failed in three cases, which were subsequently identified as HCV type 2. Serotyping and genotyping results for 39 patients showed discrepancies between the two methods for 4 patients, who had HCV type 2, type 6, or mixed infections. Thus, HCV type 5 may also be encountered frequently in Western countries. Its apparent confinement to a restricted area raises the question of how it emerged and underscores the need for further studies of HCV type prevalence, routes of transmission, pathogenicity, and responses to treatment.
Henquell
Cécile
C
Laboratoire de Virologie, Faculté de Médecine, 28 place Henri Dunant, 63001 Clermont-Ferrand Cedex, France. chenquell@chu-clermontferrand.fr
Cartau
Carole
C
Abergel
Armand
A
Laurichesse
Henri
H
Regagnon
Christel
C
De Champs
Christophe
C
Bailly
Jean-Luc
JL
Peigue-Lafeuille
Hélène
H
D020121:5' Untranslated Regions / Q000737:chemistry; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D005838:Genotype; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012703:Serotyping; D013997:Time Factors; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D012324:RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase
D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; C087036:NS-5 protein, hepatitis C virus; D012324:RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase