2. RATIONALE Most treatment related studies on HCV have come from the West, where the most prevalent genotype is 1; their results however do not necessarily reflect the outcome in a developing country like Pakistan, where studies have already confirmed that the most prevalent genotype is 32. Success rates have globally been reported to be high when treating genotype 3: it has long been observed that patients infected with genotype 2 and 3 respond better to interferon therapy than patients infected with genotype 11, 3.