Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Jan;137(1):79-84.
doi: 10.1017/S095026880800054X. Epub 2008 Mar 17.

The unexpected discovery of a focus of hepatitis C virus genotype 5 in a Syrian province

N Antaki  1 , M Haddad, K Kebbewar, J Abdelwahab, O Hamed, R Aaraj, N Alhaj, S Haffar, M Assil, M Ftayeh, F Assaad, D Doghman, T Ali, M Nasserelddine, A Ali, F Antaki; Syrian Working Group for the Study of Viral Hepatitis
Affiliations

The unexpected discovery of a focus of hepatitis C virus genotype 5 in a Syrian province

N Antaki et al. Epidemiol Infect. 2009 Jan.

Abstract

Genotype 5 (G5) was initially discovered and is still mainly diagnosed in South Africa. No cases of G5 have ever been reported from the Middle East countries. The aim of the study was to determine the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype distribution in Syria and the prevalence of G5 in this country. Genotyping of HCV was performed in 636 consecutive HCV patients referred to eight medical centres in Syria over a 3-year period. Genotype 4 was the most frequent genotype (375 patients, 59%) followed by genotype 1 (181 patients, 28.5%) and G5 (64 patients, 10%). The majority of G5 patients (56 cases, 87%) live in the north of Syria, including 21 cases (33%) from Azaz, a small city close to Turkey. No obvious epidemiological reason for such high prevalence of G5 was found.

PubMed Disclaimer