Hepatitis C virus genotypes and co-infection with GB virus C in patients with anti-HCV-positive chronic liver disease in Jakarta, Indonesia

Of 153 patients with chronic liver disease in Jakarta, Indonesia, who were positive for antibody to hepatitis C virus (HCV), 129 (84%) had HCV RNA in serum. HCV genotypes were II/1b in 55 (43%), III/2a in 33 (26%) and 1c in 15 (12%) patients; genotypes were not classifiable into the common five (I/1a, II/1b, III/2a, IV/2b and V/3a) or 1 c in the remaining 25 (19%) patients. RNA of a putative non-A-E hepatitis virus, designated GB virus C (GBV-C), was tested for by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction with nested primers deduced from the 5′-noncoding region, and detected in 18 (12%) patients of whom 14 (78%) possessed serum HCV RNA. These results indicate that 1c and the other indigenous genotypes of HCV, as well as the co-infection with GBV-C, would be common among Indonesian patients with HCV-associated chronic liver disease.