We investigate a correlation between genetic diversity of hepatitis C virus population and the level of viral RNA accumulation in patient blood. Genetic diversity is defined as the mean Hamming distance between all pairs of virus RNA sequences representing the population. We have found that a low Hamming distance (i.e. low genetic diversity) correlates with a high RNA level; symmetrically, high diversity corresponds to a low RNA level. We contend that the obtained correlation strength justifies the use of the viral RNA level as a measure enabling prediction of efficiency of an established therapy. We also propose that patient qualification for therapy, based on viral RNA level, improves its efficiency.

中文翻译：

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预测HCV治疗效果。

我们调查了丙型肝炎病毒人群的遗传多样性与患者血液中病毒RNA积累水平之间的相关性。遗传多样性定义为代表种群的所有成对病毒RNA序列之间的平均汉明距离。我们发现低汉明距离（即低遗传多样性）与高RNA水平相关。对称地，高多样性对应于低RNA水平。我们认为，所获得的相关强度证明使用病毒RNA水平作为能够预测既定治疗效率的措施是合理的。我们还建议根据病毒RNA水平对患者进行治疗资格鉴定，以提高其效率。