Numbers

Hi, all.  Once again, I have questions.  What do the numbers 1a, 3a, and all of that mean?  Can someone explain?

[seeking the truth]

as far as i know those are your geno-type numbers. 1a's are the hardest to treat. but others will be on to give you more detail.

[want2live]

Genotype is the "flavor" of Hep C that you are blessed with.

[cuteus]

please go to janis7hepc.com for explanations on many general questions on HCV. You can learn a lot of the basics there.

[Plutonium-kid]

Hello TGal,

As others have already informed you the number # in HCV type (ie: 1, 2, 3..etc) indicates the genotype & the alphabetical letter designates the order of discovery of that specific sub-species. That's "a" being discovered first "b" second....etc.
I hope that's clear to you.......

Best of Luck to all,
The Kid

[Galen]

From www.hepatitis.org:

1a is most commonly found in North America; also common in Australia

1b is common in North America, Europe, and Japan

2b is the most common genotype in the USA and northern Europe

2c is the most common genotype in western and southern Europe

3a is common in Australia and southern Asia

4a is highly prevelant in Egypt

4c is highly preveland in Central Africa

and
6 is common in Asia

[MajNeni]

I think there is an error in this in Comment 5 from www.hepatitis.org:

*************************************************************
2b is (the most common genotype) in the USA and northern Europe
2c is (the most common genotype) in western and southern Europe
*************************************************************
I think in reality this meant to say:
2b is most commonly found in the USA and northern Europe
2c is most commonly found in western and southern Europe.

The article was about the geographic distribution of the various genotypes and where you are most likely to find them.
The most common genotype in the USA is G1, a or b; these account for around 70% of HCV infections in this country.

[layla]

These are sub types of HCV called genotypes or referred to commonly here as G1a or G1b etc.. They are just more specific. You could have 1a or 1b, 2a or 2b, 3a or 3b and so on. I think there are also e and g. Each one is different in that they may require different amounts of tx to get rid of them. For instance G1's tx is initially for 48 weeks where G2's are only 24 weeks since that strain responds better. These different types are also more or less prevalent in different countries for example G1'a are more often found in the USA where G2's are more common in Europe. I am not sure why this is. Hope this helps. LL

[Galen]

This was a direct quote from that website.