Genotypes of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in liver disease patients in Sri Lanka.

A total of 460 samples (serum or plasma) were obtained from clinically diagnosed liver disease patients from January 2006 to December 2007 and subjected to reverse transcription--polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) based detection of HCV. Of these, 32 samples (6.9%) were positive for HCV RNA. Samples that were positive for HCV were genotyped with type specific primers. The genotyping assay was validated by DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. The Sri Lankan isolates were comprised predominantly of genotype 1b (46.9%) followed by genotype 2b (21.9%), 2a (15.6%) and mixed infection with genotypes 1b and 2b (3.1%). This is the first report of the distribution of HCV genotypes in Sri Lanka.