Bunchorntavakul C, Chavalitdhamrong D, Tanwandee T. Hepatitis C genotype 6: A concise review and response-guided therapy proposal. World J Hepatol 2013; 5(9): 496-504 [PMID: 24073301 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v5.i9.496]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Chalermrat Bunchorntavakul, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Rajavithi Hospital, College of Medicine, Rangsit University, Rajavithi Road, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400, Thailand. dr.chalermrat@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Chalermrat Bunchorntavakul, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Rajavithi Hospital, College of Medicine, Rangsit University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
Disaya Chavalitdhamrong, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, United States
Tawesak Tanwandee, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10700, Thailand
Author contributions: Bunchorntavakul C conceptualized, researched and reviewed related literature, and drafted this paper; Chavalitdhamrong D and Tanwandee T conceptualized and critically reviewed this paper.
Correspondence to: Chalermrat Bunchorntavakul, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Rajavithi Hospital, College of Medicine, Rangsit University, Rajavithi Road, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400, Thailand. dr.chalermrat@gmail.com
Telephone: +66-2-3548081 Fax: +66-2-3548179
Received: July 8, 2013 Revised: August 5, 2013 Accepted: August 12, 2013 Published online: September 27, 2013 Processing time: 85 Days and 5.6 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Hepatitis C genotype 6 is endemic in Southeast Asia [prevalence varies between 10%-60% among all hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection], as well as also sporadically reported outside the area among immigrations. The diagnosis of HCV genotype can be inaccurate with earlier methods of genotyping due to identical 5’-UTR between genotype 6 and 1b, hence the newer genotyping methods with core sequencing are preferred. Risk factors and clinical course of HCV genotype 6 do not differ considerably from other genotypes. Treatment outcome of HCV genotype 6 with a combination of pegylated interferon and ribavirin is superior to genotype 1, and nearly comparable to genotype 3. Emerging data suggests that a shorter course 24-wk treatment is equally effective as a standard 48-wk treatment, particularly for those patients who attained undetectable HCV RNA at week 4.
