Possible New Hepatitis B Virus Genotype, Southeast Asia

Abstract

We conducted a phylogenetic analysis of 19 hepatitis B virus strains from Laos that belonged to 2 subgenotypes of a new genotype I. This emerging new genotype likely developed outside Southeast Asia and is now found in mixed infections and in recombinations with local strains in a geographically confined region.

Keywords

• Phylogeny
• recombination
• genotype
• Laos
• dispatch