Frequency of hepatitis B surface antigen variants (HBsAg) in hepatitis B virus genotype B and C infected East- and Southeast Asian patients: detection by the Elecsys ® HBsAg II assay

Nearly 250 million people worldwide have chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, which can lead to long-term complications, such as cirrhosis, liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma [1,2]. HBV is differentiated into a number of genotypes, which are characterized by differences of>8% in genome sequence; 10 HBV genotypes (A –J) have been identified to date, with distinct geographic distributions [3]. For example, genotype C is primarily found in South-East Asia, and genotype I has been reported in Vietnam and Laos [3].

Source: Journal of Clinical Virology - April 5, 2018 Category: Virology Authors: Hyon Suk Kim, Xinyue Chen, Min Xu, Cunling Yan, Yali Liu, Haohui Deng, Bui Huu Hoang, Pham Thi Thu Thuy, Terry Wang, Yiwen Yan, Zhen Zeng, Mikael Gencay, Gaston Westergaard, Stephan Pabinger, Albert Kriegner, Markus Nauck, Anja Seffner, Peter Gohl, Kirste Source Type: research