Genetic variability of hepatitis C viruses strains

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has high genomic variability and, since its discovery, at least six different types and an increasing number of sub-types have been reported. There is not knowledge about the degree of genetic variation among HCV strains circulating in the Andean region of South America. In order to study the degree of genetic variability of strains isolated at the HNERM, in this preliminary study it was obtained the sequences from the 5’ non coding region (5’ NCR) belonging to 12 patients and were reported to the GenBank obtaining the accession identifications.