Prevalence and genotypes of hepatitis G virus among hemodialysis patients in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey.

OBJECTIVES To study the prevalence and genotype distribution of hepatitis G virus (HGV) in hemodialysis patients in East Anatolia, Turkey. SUBJECTS AND MATERIALS Eighty-nine hemodialysis patients and 30 healthy individuals were analyzed by using reverse-transcriptase nested polymerase chain reaction with primers specific for 5' untranslated region. HGV genotyping was performed by PCR and three randomly selected HGV-positive samples were sequenced. RESULTS Of the 89 hemodialysis patients, HGV RNA was detected in 9 (10.2%). All of our isolates were assigned to genotype 2. CONCLUSION Our results showed that hemodialysis patients carry the risk for HGV infection in East Anatolia, Turkey.