Volume 25 , Issue 1 , June 2023 , Pages 1-12
Awat Jamal Hasan 1 ; Zhian Salah Ramzi 2 ; Mohammed Abdulrahman Alshekhani 2
1 Department of Community Health Nursing, College of Nursing, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimaniyah, Iraq
2 Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimaniyah, Iraq
Background: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a prevalent cause of liver illness.
The virus displays a high degree of genetic variability, with documented
geographical differences in genotype predominance. Objective: This study aimed
to determine the prevalence of HCV genotypes among people who lived in
Sulaimaniyah province, Kurdistan region of Iraq. Patients and Methods: Blood
samples were collected from 229 individuals identified as having a confirmed
positive HCV antibody and who had been referred to the Public Health Laboratory
in Sulaimaniyah city by medical professionals for genotyping from July 2021 to
December 2022. Following the extraction of the viral RNA, a PCR-based
genotyping kit was used to identify the HCV genotype. Results: The most
prevalent genotype was GT1a (31.6%), followed by GT1 and GT4 (23.6%) and
then GT1b (7.9%). Mixed genotypes were observed in 10.4% of samples. Males
were affected mainly by HCV (58.5%) than females (41.5%). The frequency of
GT1a was higher in males (32.1%) compared to females (30.5%). On the other
hand, males exhibited a more excellent distribution of GT4 and GT1 than females,
while GT1b and GT5 were observed more in females than males. Among mixed
genotypes, GT5 or 6 was the most prevalent infection type (no.=8, 3.5%), while
GT1a, 3 reported the lowest rate (no.=1, 0.4%). Conclusion: This study assesses
the HCV genotype distribution among infected HCV patients in Sulaimaniyah,
which is distinct from the prevalent distribution in Iraq and Middle Eastern Arab
nations, but it is equivalent to the distribution worldwide.