Journal
REVIEWS IN MEDICAL VIROLOGY
Volume 19, Issue 4, Pages 231-240Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/rmv.618
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Ministry of Cooperation of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
- Centre de Recherche Public-Sante
- PhD fellowship BFR of the Ministry of Research
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is highly endemic throughout sub-Saharan Africa. One of the two genotypes A and E dominates in most countries. With several subgenotypes and variants, genotype A is more diverse in Africa (4.00%) than in the rest of the world (2.96%), suggesting an African origin and a long history on the continent. Despite the African slave trade, genotype E has only sporadically been found within the Americas, indicating that this genotype was introduced only during the past 200 years into the general African population. A short history for this genotype in Africa is also supported by its conspicuously low genetic diversity (1.75%), which contrasts, however, with its excessively high HBsAg prevalence and its extensive spread throughout the vast West-African genotype E crescent. We discuss the spread and routes of transmission of genotype E and suggest that the distribution and current high prevalence levels of HBV (genotype E) in Africa are the result of the extensive use of unsafe needles, potentially solving the current African genotype E puzzle and shedding new light on the high HBV prevalence in Africa. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available