Distribution of HCV genotypes in Belgium from 2008 to 2015

Background The knowledge of circulating HCV genotypes and subtypes in a country is crucial to guide antiviral therapy and to understand local epidemiology. Studies investigating circulating HCV genotypes and their trends have been conducted in Belgium. However they are outdated, lack nationwide representativeness or were not conducted in the general population. Methods In order to determine the distribution of different circulating HCV genotypes in Belgium, we conducted a multicentre study with all the 19 Belgian laboratories performing reimbursed HCV genotyping assays. Available genotype and... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Bouacida, Lobna
Suin, Vanessa
Hutse, Veronik
Boudewijns, Michaël
Cartuyvels, Reinoud
Debaisieux, Laurent
De Laere, Emmanuel
Hallin, Marie
Hougardy, Nicolas
Lagrou, Katrien
Oris, Els
Padalko, Elizaveta
Reynders, Marijke
Roussel, Gatien
Senterre, Jean Marc
Stalpaert, Michel
Ursi, Dominique
Vael, Carl
Vaira, Dolores
Van Acker, Jos
Verstrepen, Walter
Van Gucht, Steven
Kabamba-Mukadi, Benoît
Quoilin, Sophie
Muyldermans, Gaëtan
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
Schlagwörter: Biologie / Sciences bio-médicales et agricoles / Psychologie appliquée
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26991454
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/284780

Background The knowledge of circulating HCV genotypes and subtypes in a country is crucial to guide antiviral therapy and to understand local epidemiology. Studies investigating circulating HCV genotypes and their trends have been conducted in Belgium. However they are outdated, lack nationwide representativeness or were not conducted in the general population. Methods In order to determine the distribution of different circulating HCV genotypes in Belgium, we conducted a multicentre study with all the 19 Belgian laboratories performing reimbursed HCV genotyping assays. Available genotype and subtype data were collected for the period from 2008 till 2015. Furthermore, a limited number of other variables were collected: some demographic characteristics from the patients and the laboratory technique used for the determination of the HCV genotype. Results For the study period, 11,033 unique records collected by the participating laboratories were used for further investigation. HCV genotype 1 was the most prevalent (53.6%) genotype in Belgium, with G1a and G1b representing 19.7% and 31.6%, respectively. Genotype 3 was the next most prevalent (22.0%). Further, genotype 4, 2, and 5 were responsible for respectively 16.1%, 6.2%, and 1.9% of HCV infections. Genotype 6 and 7 comprise the remaining <1%. Throughout the years, a stable distribution was observed for most genotypes. Only for genotype 5, a decrease as a function of the year of analysis was observed, with respectively 3.6% for 2008, 2.3% for 2009 and 1.6% for the remaining years. The overall M:F ratio was 1.59 and was mainly driven by the high M:F ratio of 3.03 for patients infected with genotype 3. Patients infected with genotype 3 are also younger (mean age 41.7 years) than patients infected with other genotypes (mean age above 50 years for all genotypes). The patients for whom a genotyping assay was performed in 2008 were younger than those from 2015. Geographical distribution demonstrates that an important number of genotyped HCV patients live outside ...