Welcome to the forum.
Yes, Genotype 4 is rarer in the US than Genotype1, 2, or 3. However, it is prevalent in other areas of the world.
I believe the cure rates for Genotype 4 are higher than what you are being told.
This is what I found in an article published January 2011.
"Controlled randomized and non-randomized clinical trials demonstrated high SVR rates ranging between 50 and 79% in chronic HCV-4 hepatitis patients receiving PEG-IFN-α2b plus ribavirin (34–46) (Fig. 2)."
And another excerpt: "The hepatitis C virus genotype 4 (HCV-4) is prevalent in Egypt, the Middle East and Africa. Recently, the epidemiology of HCV-4 has changed and this genotype has begun to cross borders and spread to several regions in Europe through immigration and injection drug use. HCV-4 has been considered a difficult-to-treat genotype based on the low sustained virological response (SVR) rates obtained with conventional interferon (IFN)-based regimens. Pegylated interferons (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin therapy for chronic HCV-4 has been associated with increased SVR rates of more than 60%. Shorter treatment of chronic HCV-4 patients with rapid and early virological responses has been associated with high SVR rates, better compliance, fewer adverse events and lower costs."
Here is a link to that article. I think you will find the article interesting and informative.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-3231.2010.02385.x/full
Also, Bali (a forum member) knows a lot more about Genotype 4 than most of us do and he may have some suggestions for you.
Here are 2 past threads that are related to Genotype 4:
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/Genotype-4-and-new-drugs/show/1722397
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/Genotype-4-and-new-drugs/show/1722397
And here are some more links:
http://www.hepatitiscnewdrugresearch.com/hepatitis-c-genotype-4.html
http://hepatitiscnewdrugs.blogspot.com/2011/01/hepatitis-c-virus-genotype-4-therapy.html
http://www.hepatitiscnewdrugresearch.com/hepatitiscnewdrugresearch.com-12595921694ec45451c4c35/hepatitis-c-genotype-4.html
Come back with questions. This forum is a good place for information and support. Best of luck.