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Hepatitis C Virus Genotype 1 is the most prevalent worldwide affecting 83 million patients worldwide, a new study has found.

According to the study Genotype 3 with 54 million cases is the next most prevalent, followed by genotypes 2, 4, 6 and 5.

According to World Health Organization, each year 350,000 to 500,000 deaths are caused by liver diseases related to HCV.

"While the HCV infection rate is decreasing in developed countries, deaths from liver disease secondary to HCV will continue increasing over the next 20 years," explained lead co-author Dr. Jane Messina with the University of Oxford in the U.K, in the press release. "Understanding the global trends in the genetic makeup of HCV is the focus of our study and imperative in developing new treatment strategies that may save millions of lives around the world."

Statistically, HCV genotype 1 is the most prevalent at 46% of all HCV cases, followed by genotype 3 at 30%; genotypes 2, 4, and 6 with a combined total of 23% and genotype 5 at less than 1%, the press release added.

The study also highlighted that genotypes 1 and 3 are the most dominant regardless economic status but found lower-income countries had larger concentrations of genotypes 4 and 5.

The study included 117 countries, roughly 90 percent of the population.

The study is published in Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.