New clade of Hepatitis C virus prototype sequences thereof and

An isolated HCV characterized in that the phylogenetic distance of NS5B 340 bp fragment of said isolated HCV is less than or equal to 0.328 of one of the following nucleic acid sequences; (I) a nucleic acid of SEQ ID NO: 1 or 2; wherein it said phylogenetic distance is measured in the environment Kimura two-parameter.