Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a crucial health problem with up to 350 million people infected globally. The epidemiological significance of HBV genotypes has been well established however, no such large scale data available for HBV genotypes and much little is known about the mixed infection with more than one HBV genotypes. The main aim of the present study was to determine the molecular characterization of HBV genotypes in HBsAg positive patients in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A total of 713 HBsAg positive individuals were included in the present study. All the samples were confirmed for HBV DNA with nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and HBV DNA positive samples were further processed for HBV genotypes with type specific primers. This study demonstrated that genotype A (33.66%) is the predominant genotype followed by genotype D (29.5%), genotype C (2.10%), genotype F (1.40%) and mixed genotypes A+D (10.52%) while 5.9% of the samples were untypable. Genotype B and E was not found in this study. The current study shows the high frequency of genotype A and a heterogeneous distribution of HBV genotypes. Further study needs to investigate genetic and geographical divergence and characteristics of the virus in this area especially.

Key words: Hepatitis B virus, HBsAg, HBV DNA, genotype, characterization.