BACKGROUND Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the most important health problems worldwide with a high rate of morbidity and mortality. It is a major risk factor for cirrhosis and liver cancer. Currently, Iran is located in the intermediate HBV zone; however, recent studies have provided some evidence indicating an epidemiological change in the country. The aim of this study wa...

Introduction Worldwide, infections with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) have become a major cause of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the major global problems for public health in the world and Iran (1-3). HBV infection is the main cause of chronic liver disease in Iran (4) and the seroprevalence of HBV infection in Iran has been decreased...

BACKGROUND Eight genotypes of Hepatitis B virus designated A-H, have been known but in Pakistan, no such data is available on the prevalent HBV genotypes. Therefore, the subject study was conducted to determine HBV genotypes in the indigenous Pakistani population. METHODS A total of 690 individuals were enrolled for HBV screening with EIA and nested PCR. Positive samples were further analyzed...

Clinical outcomes of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection vary widely. In addition to host factors, several viral factors including HBV genotype, viral load, specific viral mutations and quantitative HBsAg levels, have been associated with disease outcomes. Among viral factors, HBV genotype correlates with not only the clinical outcomes, but also with the response to interferon treatment. ...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a gradually evolving virus. The aim of this study was to characterize the distribution pattern of HBV genotypes and subgenotypes and HBsAg subtypes in chronic hepatitis B subjects from the Indian subcontinent. We also sought to investigate the genetic diversity of HBV genotypes and its influence on the therapeutic response. METHODS A total of 295 chronic ...

Background Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the major etiological agent causing acute and chronic liver disease worldwide with significant morbidity and mortality. The high genetic variability of HBV is reflected by eight genotypes (A to H), each with a particular geographical prevalence. The global pattern of HBV genotypes is associated with the distribution of human population among the different c...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the major causative agents of chronic liver diseases in Korea. HBV has been classified into 8 genotypes by a divergence of >8% in the entire genomic sequence, and have distinct geographic distributions. There are limited data on the relevance between HBV genotypes and clinical outcomes in Korea. To investigate the clinical feature relating to HBV genotype in Ko...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been classified into eight genotypes (A-H) based on genome sequence divergence. Genotypes of HBV have distinct geographical distributions, and two genotypes account for most HBV worldwide. Hepatitis B e antigen expression lasts longer and liver disease is more severe with graver outcomes in carriers of genotype C than B in Asia. Accumulating lines of evidence indicat...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been classified into 8 genotypes (A-H) based on an intergroup divergence of 8% ormore in the complete nucleotide sequence.1,2 Figure 1 illustrates the geographic distribution of HBV genotypes, but existing information is incomplete, as data in many parts of the world are not available or are based on very small numbers of patients studied. Additionally, the distribut...

The role of hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes in the outcome of acute HBV infection is unclear. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the clinical and virological features of patients with hepatitis B-related acute liver failure (HBV-ALF) in the US. Clinical and laboratory features of consecutive patients with HBV-ALF from the US ALF Study Group were analysed. Prevalence of HBV genotypes, precore...