•During the past decade there has been an impressive progress in the efficacy of treatment for hepatitis C. Genotype 2 and 3 are easier to treat with a higher success rate.
The present treatment is weekly subcutaneous peginterferon alfa-2a (or alfa-2b) and daily oral ribavirin which can be prescribed. Generally the treatment period is 12 -24 weeks (tests done at either 4 weeks or 12 weeks can determine if the treatment is working).
If you have genotype 2b, you have a 70-80% chance of success, based on the most recent information through medical studies.
There are some new drugs coming which have a better success rate. Depending on your present liver conditions, you might want to wait for the new drugs to become available. Consult with your physician and specialist to the best route to take. Wishing you the best.
HCV genotypes 2 and 3 are easier to treat than genotypes 1 or 4. Genotype 1 is the most common in the US. The standard course of therapy for genotype 2 or 3 is pegylated interferon plus ribavirin for 24 weeks, increasing to 48 weeks for hard-to-treat genotype 1.
Genotypes 2 and 3 also have a response rate of 70%-80% in most studies,
If you don't have advanced liver disease (you will need a biopsy to know) there should be treatment within the next year, for people that haven't treated before, the cure rate is 90% or better. This is using Gilead's Sofosbuvir plus Ribavirin.
Hector
Genotypes Explained
It is much easier to talk of the Hepatitis C virus as if it is a single organism but in fact it is a range of viruses, similar enough to be called Hepatitis C virus, yet different enough to be classified into subgroups.
Viruses are microscopic and no person could ever see them with the naked eye. Indeed, HCV is so small that there's been no confirmed actual sighting of it using any type of microscope yet developed.
Consequently, a better way to understand the terms HCV 'genotypes' and 'subtypes' is to compare them to things that we can more readily relate to.
Genotypes
The group of birds we call 'raptors' (birds of prey) have evolved into different main types. Imagining raptors as being Hepatitis C viruses, you could take one major raptor type, such as eagles, and imagine these as being one of HCV's main types (genotypes).
Subtypes
But eagles as a group are made up of different sub types such as the American Bald Eagle and Australia's Wedge Tailed Eagle and Sea Eagle. You could imagine each of these as being one of the HCV subtypes that make up an HCV genotype.
Quasispecies
Within each of above particular types of eagles, there are further differences. All Wedge Tailed Eagles, for example, differ from each other in regard to wing span, weight, color, beak size, etc. Similarly, within a Hepatitis C sub-type, individual viruses differ from each other ever so slightly. Such viral differences are not significant enough to form another sub-type but instead form what's known as quasi-species. It is believed that within an HCV sub-type, several million quasispecies may exist. Scientists predict that people who have Hepatitis C, have billions of actual viruses circulating within their body. Although there may be one or two predominant sub-types, the infection as a whole is not a single entity and is composed of many different quasispecies.
http://www.hepatitis-central.com/hcv/genotype/explained.html