Özet:

Objectives: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an important public health problem worldwide. This study examined long-term changes in distribution of HCV genotypes s in HCV-RNA-positive patients in a large population. Materials and Methods: Following HCV genotype and subtype sequence analysis, the sequence and the reference sequences were compared with the “line probe assay” method or the multiplex amplification methods of 5’UTR and NS5B or only NS5B. Results: In the study, HCV-RNA positive 670 patients undergoing genotyping were included. Genotype 1 was detected in 603 patients (90.0%), genotype 3 in 45 (6.7%), genotype 2 in 12 (1.8%), genotype 4 in 6 (0.9%), combined genotypes 1 and 2 in 2 (0.3%), and genotypes 1 and 4 in 2 (0.3%). Genotypes 5, 6, 7 and 8 were not observed in this study. The most dominant subtypes by years were genotype 1b (82.8%) and genotype 3a (4.5%). Genotype 1b was detected in 63.2% of patients under <50 years of age and in 89.7% of those ≥50 years of age (p<0.001), while genotype 3 was determined in 2.0% of patients aged ≥50 years of age and in 20.1% of those <50 years of age (p<0.001). Conclusion: This study revealed that changes occurred in the general distribution of HCV genotype and subtypes by years, and that HCV genotype 1b was seen at the highest rate, especially in patients over 50 years old.

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