RESUMEN
Hepatitis G virus (HGV) infection has been detected in Filipinos through a prospective study of 1,088 blood samples. HGV RNA was found in sera of 6/516 (1.2 percent) healthy adults (volunteer blood donors), 11/138 (8.0 percent) chronic liver disease patients, 7/207 (3.4 percent) hemodialysis patients, and 14/227 (6.2 percent) multiply transfused patients using reversetranscription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with random hexamer primers and a set of PCR primers from the 5 untranslated region (5UTR) of the HGV genome. A total of 38/1,088 subjects were HGV RNA-positiveThe PCR products derived from the 5UTR of HGV RNA+ samples were sequenced to determine the genotypic variant of HGV in the Philippines. Pairwise alignment of sequences and phylogenetic tree construction revealed that among the five known HGV genotypic variants, the Philippine isolates are most closely related to the Asian type (III)Considering that HGV is a highly mutable organism, surveillance for new genotypes may be the only way to assess accurate asymptomatic infection rates. How much this virus evolves in the future may have an impact on its virulence, transmissibility and invasiveness. It is therefore important, from an evolutionary perspective, to continue and monitor evolution of HGV specifically with studies at the molecular level. (Author)