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Molecular epidemiology of hepatitis C virus infection at Ga-Rankuwa Hospital.

Different hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes may be associated with viral load, severity of liver disease, hepatocellular carcinoma, geographical location and sensitivity to interferon. In this study the prevalence of HCV-RNA and distribution of HCV genotypes was investigated in anti-HCV-positive patients admitted to Ga-Rankuwa Hospital during 1994 and 1995. One hundred and forty-nine sera from three groups of anti-HCV-positive patients (N = 78) were analysed. These included: (i) patients with various liver diseases; (ii) patients admitted to the renal unit; and (iii) a miscellaneous group of patients for whom HCV antibody screening was requested. Twenty-six patients (33%) tested positive for viral RNA. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of these patients showed that HCV genotypes 1, 2 and 5 were present. Type 2 (35%) was the dominant genotype in the region served by Ga-Rankuwa Hospital. In a large proportion of viral RNA-positive patients (27%), the polymerase chain reaction product could not be digested with one of the sets of enzymes, and therefore could not be classified into genotypes 1 to 6. Further studies are now in progress to enhance our current knowledge of the epidemiology of HCV infection.