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 However they are outdated, lack nationwide representativeness or were not conducted in the general population.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: Lobna Bouacida
Vanessa Suin
Veronik Hutse
Michaël Boudewijns
Reinoud Cartuyvels
Laurent Debaisieux
Emmanuel De Laere
Marie Hallin
Nicolas Hougardy
Katrien Lagrou
Els Oris
Elizaveta Padalko
Marijke Reynders
Gatien Roussel
Jean-Marc Senterre
Michel Stalpaert
Dominique Ursi
Carl Vael
Dolores Vaira
Jos Van Acker
Walter Verstrepen
Steven Van Gucht
Benoit Kabamba
Sophie Quoilin
Gaëtan Muyldermans
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
Reihe/Periodikum: PLoS ONE, Vol 13, Iss 12, p e0207584 (2018)
Verlag/Hrsg.: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Schlagwörter: Medicine / R / Science / Q
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27391831
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207584

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 However they are outdated, lack nationwide representativeness or were not conducted in the general population.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 ...