First genome characterization of a novel hepatitis C virus genotype 5 variant.

We report a new hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 5 variant from a woman living in Burkina Faso. Phylogenetic analysis of the near full-length genome sequence suggests that this isolate HCV5_BF16 could be the first reported strain belonging to a new HCV 5 subtype, distinct from the 5a subtype.