Most common genotypes and risk factors for HCV in Gaza strip: a cross sectional study | Virology Journal BioMed Central Research Most common genotypes and risk factors for HCV in Gaza strip a cross sectional study Basim M Ayesh 1 2 Sofia S Zourob3 Salah Y Abu-Jadallah2 and Yonat Shemer-Avni4 Address 1Molecular Biology Lab Central Laboratory-Ministry of Health Gaza Palestinian authority 2Biology Department-Islamic University of Gaza Gaza Palestinian authority 3The European Gaza Hospital Laboratory Gaza Palestinian authority and 4Soroka Academic Medical Center Faculty of Health Sciences Clinical Virology Unit Dept of Virology Beer Sheva Israel Email Basim M Ayesh - bayesh@ Sofia S Zourob - sofia@ Salah Y Abu-Jadallah - sjadalla@ Yonat Shemer-Avni - yonat@ Corresponding author Open Access Published 16 July 2009 Received 1 April 2009 Virology Journal 2009 6 105 doi 1743-422X-6-105 Accepted 16 July 2009 This article is available from http content 6 1 105 2009 Ayesh et al licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http licenses by which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background The present work aims at determining HCV genotypes in patients with chronic HCV infection in Gaza strip Palestine. The most common risk factors for HCV transmission were also evaluated in conjunction with the genotyping data. Results The study shows that there are only two major genotypes of HCV in Gaza Strip Genotype 1 subtypes 1a and 1b collectively contribute to of the cases and genotype 4 subtypes 4a and 4c d collectively contribute to of the cases. Mixed infection with the two genotypes was also present among of the cases. In this study a statistically significant relationship was established between the .
