[1] It was first identified in 2005 in blood of transfusion recipients and initially named hepegivirus 1 because it shared some genetic features with both pegiviruses and hepaciviruses.

[1][2] HPgV-2 was later independently discovered by another group in the blood of a HCV-infected patient who had undergone multiple blood transfusions and died from sepsis of unclear etiology.

However, its prevalence in the general population in China and USA is very low at 0.1–0.2%.

[1] The chronic infection by HPgV-2 is maintained in presence of antienvelop antibodies as is the case for HCV chronic infections, whereas in case of GB virus C, appearance of antibodies usually leads to resolution of the infection.

[5] HPgV-2 is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus with the genome length around 9,800 nucleotides.