2. Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection in general population of District Bannu Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

Hepatitis C is one of the much common liver diseases all over the world. It is caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV) and a significant number of patient’s proceed in the direction of chronic hepatitis, hepatocellular carcinoma and liver cancer. Globally it is assumed that more than 250 million people are affected from HCV. Moreover 10 million persons in Pakistan are infected from HCV. The current study was conducted with main aim to investigate the rate of infection in general population of District Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A total of 1016 individuals (including 611 males and 405 females) of the age group 1 to 75 years were collected. All the individuals were screened for anti-HCV antibodies with Immunochromatographic (ICT) test. The results shows that of the total 1016 samples, 45 (4.4%) were found positive for anti-HCV antibodies while 971 (95.5%) were found negative for anti-HCV antibodies. The infection was more prevalent in the age group of 46-60 years (9.7%) peoples and lower in the age group of 1 to 15 years (2.1%). The major risk factors were dental surgery, piercing of nose and ears, skin tattooing, blood transfusion, reuse of contaminated blades, reuse of syringes, general surgery, interfamilial prevalence and drug abuse. Hepatitis C is still endemic in the general population of District Bannu and needs proper screening and preventive measurements to control the disease.

Keywords: Bannu; Endemic; HCV infection; Prevalence; Risk factors

http://dx.doi.org/10.19045/bspab.2020.90178