Genotypes of hepatitis B virus among voluntary blood donors in northern Thailand

• Main Authors: Jutavijittum P., Jiviriyawat Y., Yousukh A., Kunachiwa W., Toriyama K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-33746513325&partnerID=40&md5=1c58e1ac9108198c8537b3825bfbd99d; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16731031; http://cmuir.cmu.ac.th/handle/6653943832/707
• Institution: Chiang Mai University

There are distinct ethnogeographic variations for the distribution of various hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes, and pathogenic and therapeutic differences are also observed. In general, genotype B infection has a relatively better prognosis than genotype C. In Thailand, genotypes C and B were reported as the major genotypes; however, there were no previous reports of HBV genotyping in the north of the country. From 1998 to 2000, 216 HBsAg-positive serum samples (164 males and 52 females, aged 16-52 years), were screened and collected from voluntary blood donors in four provinces of northern Thailand. The method of Naito et al. was employed in this study, with the multiplex-PCR approach and genotype-specific primers to identify genotypes A-F. We found that the HBV genotype C was highly predominant in northern Thailand (89.3%), when compared with the previous reports of genotype C distribution among voluntary blood donors from other areas in the country (50-65%), followed by genotype B (7.4%), mixed infection of genotype B and C (1.9%) and genotype A (0.5%). Four samples (1.9%) were unclassifiable. There was no significant difference of genotype distribution among four northern Thai provinces or each age group. © 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.