The distribution of HCV in subjects attending hospitals in Duhok City, Iraq

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of hepatitis C virus(HCV) and its genotypes in Duhok City, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of HCV and its genotype. A total of 2 109 subjects, who attended the hospital for complaints other than hepatitis, were recruited in this study.Results: First, anti-HCV antibody positivity was examined by ELISA. About 5.2%(111/2 109) of our samples were tested positive for anti-HCV antibodies. To confirm the positivity, RT-PCR was performed. Amongst all samples, 2.8%(60/2 109) was positive by RT-PCR. Then, we genotyped all the RT-PCR positive samples, and it was found that50.0%(30/60) of our samples were typed as HCV genotype 4, 43.3%(26/60) as genotype1 and 6.7%(4/60) as genotype 3.Conclusions: The prevalence of HCV was higher than that was reported previously and genotype 4 was the most prevalent. Further population based study is required to investigate the prevalence of HCV.