Prevalence of Anti-Hepatitis C Virus Antibodies among Inpatients and Outdoor Attendees of a Tertiary Care Institute

Background: Hepatitis C represents a major public health problem worldwide. The burden of the disease is expected to increase throughout the world as the disease progresses in patients who have contracted infection decade’s ago. Moreover there is considerable genetic heterogeneity among HCV isolates. Materials and method: The present study was undertaken on 4896 blood samples sent to Microbiology department of BPS, GMC for Women, Khanpur Kalan, Haryana (India) for testing anti-HCV antibodies. Subjects included both inpatients and outpatients in whom HCV testing was done on basis of demographic and underlying risk factors, clinical observations, socio economic status, as part of pre operative evaluation and antenatal cases. The sera were analyzed by 4th generation HCV TRI-DOT (Diagnostic Enterprises, H.P India). Results: The prevalence of anti- Hepatitis C virus antibodies in current study was found to be 4.62 % (226). Seroprevalence was observed to be higher among males 141 (4.96%) in comparison to females 85 (4.14%). Seropositive cases depicted maximum number within age group of 40-59 years (41.13%) followed by 20-39 years (35.46%) and 60-79 years (16.31%) in males whereas in females highest number of positive cases were found in age group of 20-39 years (40%) followed by 40-59 years (35.29%) and 60-79years (22.35%). Conclusion: HCV remains potential cause of substantial morbidity and mortality. The prevalence rate of HCV infection in the present study may be a warning sign about the rising profile of the virus in apparently healthy individuals .The underpinning of any effort to prevent and control HCV infection is accurate epidemiological data.

Author(s): Raminder Sandhu and Shalley Dahiya

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