Potential risk of misclassification HCV 2k/1b strains as HCV 2a/2c using VERSANT HCV Genotype 2.0 assay.

The performance of a hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS5B sequencing method described by Murphy et al. (Use of sequence analysis of the NS5B region for routine genotyping of hepatitis C virus with reference to C/E1 and 5' untranslated region sequences. J Clin Microbiol 2007;45(4):1102-12.) was compared with the VERSANT HCV Genotype 2.0 assay. The sequencing strategy led to detection of HCV recombinant genotype 2k/1b, previously identified as genotype 2a/2c, which reveals the importance of exact HCV genotyping and subtyping.