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
. 2019 Feb 20;14(2):e0212033.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212033. eCollection 2019.

Nine-year distribution pattern of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes in Southern Italy

Arnolfo Petruzziello  1 , Rocco Sabatino  1 , Giovanna Loquercio  1 , Annunziata Guzzo  1 , Lucia Di Capua  1 , Francesco Labonia  1 , Anna Cozzolino  1 , Rosa Azzaro  2 , Gerardo Botti  1
Affiliations

Nine-year distribution pattern of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes in Southern Italy

Arnolfo Petruzziello et al. PLoS One. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Introduction: It has been greatly described that different hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes are strictly correlated to various evolution, prognosis and response to therapy during the chronic liver disease. Aim of this study was to outline the changes in the epidemiology of Hepatitis C genotypes in Southern Italy regions from 2006 to 2014.

Material/methods: Prevalence of HCV genotypes was analyzed in 535 HCV-RNA positive patients with chronic Hepatitis C infection, selected during the period 2012-2014, and compared with our previous data, referred to periods 2006-2008 and 2009-2011.

Results: In all the three periods analyzed, genotype 1b is predominant (51.8% in 2006-08, 48.3% in 2009-11 and 54.4% in 2012-14) while genotype 2 showed an increase in prevalence (27.9% in 2006-08, 31.7% in 2009-11 and 35.2% in 2012-14) and genotypes 3a and 1a a decrease during the same period (6.8% in 2006-08, 4.7% in 2009-11 and 3.2% in 2012-14 and 7.9% in 2006-08, 4.7% in 2009-11 and 2.6% in 2012-14, respectively). Subtype 1b seems to be equally distributed between males and females (52.7% vs 56.6%) and the prevalence in the age range 31-40 years is significantly higher in the 2012-14 period than in both previous periods (53.8% vs. 16.6% in 2009-11, p< 0.001 and 13.4% in 2006-08, p < 0.001).

Conclusions: Genotype 1b is still the most prevalent, even if shows a significantly increase in the under 40 years old population. Instead, genotype 3a seems to have a moderate increase among young people. Overall, the alarming finding is the "returning" role of the iatrogenic transmission as risk factor for the diffusion of Hepatitis C infection.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Prevalence of HCV-Ab positive patients from 2006 to 2014.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Distribution of HCV genotypes in three–year periods 2006–2008, 2009–2011 and 2012–2014.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Distribution of HCV genotypes from 2006 to 2014.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Age distribution of HCV genotypes in 2006–2008.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Age distribution of HCV genotypes in 2009–2011.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Age distribution of HCV genotypes in 2012–2014.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Cooke GS, Lemoine M, Thursz M, Gore C, Swan T, Kamarulzaman A et al. Viral hepatitis and the Global Burden of Disease: a need to regroup. J Viral Hepat 2013; 20: 600–601. 10.1111/jvh.12123 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Petruzziello A. Epidemiology of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) related Hepatocellular carcinoma. The Open Virology Journal, 2018; 12 (Suppl.-1, M3) 26–32. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Petruzziello A, Marigliano S, Loquercio G, Coppola N, Piccirillo M, Leongito M et al. Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) genotypes distribution among hepatocellular carcinoma patients in Southern Italy: a three year retrospective study. Infectious Agents and Cancer. 2017; 12:52.
    1. Romeo R, Petruzziello A, Pecheur EI, Facchetti F, Perbellini R, Galmozzi E et al. Hepatitis delta virus and hepatocellular carcinoma: an update. Epidemiology and Infection 2018. July 11:1–7. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sagnelli E, Felaco FM, Rapicetta M, Stroffolini T, Petruzziello A, Annella T et al. Interaction between HDV and HBV infection in HBsAg-chronic carriers. Infection. 1991. May-Jun;19(3):155–8. - PubMed