Diverse hepatitis C strains in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In a nested case control study of the prevalence and genetic diversity
of hepatitis C virus in Uganda and the Democratic Republic
of Congo, highly diverse strains of hepatitis C were found. The
dominating strains were genotype 4 and genotype 7. Polymorphisms
that have been associated with resistance to directly acting
antivirals (DAAs) in other genotypes were found.

Ref; Davis et al. Hepatology 2019;69:1426-1441

Comment: Very few clinical trials of treatment of hepatitis C
have been performed in resource limited countries. To achieve
the ambitious goal of eradicating hepatitis C globally by 2030
there is an urgent need to perform clinical trials in these
countries to investigate treatment response and define optimal
treatment regimens for these diverse strains with unknown
susceptibility to DAAs.