Genotypes of Hepatitis C Virus in Non Responders or Relapsers : HCV Genotypes in Patients with Non-response or Relapse

This particular cohort of non responders did not have pre-treatment HCV genotyping carried out, as Genotype 3 is the most common genotype in Pakistan and the facility is not accessible to all. A crossectional study was carried out to determine HCV genotypes in patients with either non response or relapse after six months of combined treatment with Interferon and Ribavirin. The major HCV-genotypes detected in patients with non-response were 1a in 16 (41%) patients, 3a in 15(38.5%) The pool of non-responder patients comprises mostly of patients with genotype 1 and 3. The patients with Genotype 1 were given suboptimal treatment of six months. HCV - genotyping is of utmost importance in determining the rationale for predicting treatment efficacy and virologic monitoring in these non-responders.