A Recent Prevalence of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) Genotypes and Subtypes in Asia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Despite introducing the hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine, the incidence of the Hepatitis B virus globally is still a major health concern. This systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to provide detailed information on the prevalence of HBV genotypes and subtypes in circulation in Asia.

A systematic search for articles describing the prevalence of HBV genotypes and subtypes in Asia was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines.

Our search returned 207 eligible articles involving 49,279 genotypes and 7457 subtypes representing 28 Asian countries. A meta-analysis was performed on our eligible studies using the Random effect Model. The pooled prevalence of HBV genotypes showed that genotype C (30.9%) (95% CI, 27.5-34.5%; I² = 97.57%; p < 0.001) was the most common HBV genotype in Asia, followed by genotype B (17.8%) (95% CI, 15.5-20.4%; I² = 97.26%; p < 0.001) and genotype D (15.4%) (95% CI, 11.8-19.8%). Vietnam had the highest prevalence of genotype B, Lebanon had the highest prevalence of genotypes C, and Jordan had the highest prevalence of genotype D. There was variation in genotypic prevalence with respect to the target genes for HBV genotyping. Reverse dot blot hybridization had the highest estimate of genotypes B and C. HBV subtype C2 (40.0%) (95% CI, 33.3-47.0) is the most prevalent HBV subtype.

Evidence from this study reveals that HBV genotypes C and B are the most dominant HBV genotypes in Asia, and HBV subtype C2 is more endemic in Asia.