The global dynamics and spread of Hepatitis C virus 1a and 1b: A phylogeographical analysis

Research published this week in PLoS Medicine finds that the global spread of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) coincided with widespread use of transfused blood and with the expansion of intravenous drug use but slowed before wholesale implementation of anti-HCV screening.

Angelos Hatzakis and colleagues used phylodynamic and phylogeographic methods to analyse sequences of HCV subtype 1a and 1b samples (these subtypes cause 60% of global HCV infections) collected over the past 20-30 years in the Los Alamos HCV sequence database. These analyses also suggest that the most plausible route for the spread of hepatitis C virus was from the developed to the developing world.