Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important global concern, with a frequency of 3% (i.e., 170 million of the population has HCV-Ab). Additionally, 50% of HCV and 80% of transfusion transmitted infections (TTI) are chronic. In 20% of cases, HCV occurs as an acute infection, and in the remaining 80% of cases, it becomes chronic. In chronic patients, risk of cirrhosis is up to 44%, risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is 13%, and risk of mortality is 14%. As there is no vaccine available for the virus yet, and since most of the cases are asymptomatic, attention to the epidemiology of the disease among the population is a pressing concern. Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence and risk factors of HCV in Birjand city. Patients and Methods:In this descriptive-analytical study, 5,235 people who live in Birjand city were selected; after gaining permission for the study, a signed consent form was obtained from each patient. Prevalence of HCV was determined by ELISA test, and positive cases underwent Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and genotyping for confirmation. Results: The mean age of the participants was 39.7 ± 14.4. Among them, 52.2% were female and 29.9% had university degrees. Prevalence of HCV-Ab + was about 0.2% with ELISA, and 0.14% of entire group were confirmed by PCR. No significant relationship was found for age, sex, and education (P > 0.05). Also, there was no significant relationship found with risk factors such as endoscopy, blood transfusion, surgery, hospitalization, phlebotomy, and alcohol drinking (P > 0.05). HCV-Ab was 200 times more prevalent in IV-drug abusers compared to nonaddicted people. Also, the prevalence of HCV-Ab in non-IV-drug abuser addicts was 9.3 times higher than in non-addict patients. Prevalence of HCV-Ab in patients who reported illicit sexual activities was 13.3 times higher. In patients with a familial history of HCV, infection was 26.3 times more prevalent than in patients with no familial history (P < 0.001). Conclusions: In this study, the prevalence of HCV was 0.2%, which is lower than the mean prevalence in Iran (1%). Prevalence of HCV had a significant relationship with IV-drug abuse.

Background and Objectives: Taking unnecessary or inappropriate prophylactic antibiotics can cause infections with re- sistant organisms. The present study aimed to investigate administration prophylactic antibiotics in surgery ward and its compliance with standard protocol in Imam Reza teaching hospital of Birjand, Iran. Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was performed to evaluate the pattern of prophylactic antibiotics on patients who underwent surgical operations from October to December 2019. A checklist including demographic informa- tion, type of prophylactic antibiotics, dose and duration of using drug, type of surgery, and compliance with standard protocol was used. The validity and reliability of the checklist were evaluated and confirmed prior to the study. All eligible patients were enrolled and the information of the prescribed drugs in the surgical wards was compared with the Schwartz’s principles of surgery as standard protocol. Results: Out of a total of 300 patients, 187 (62.3%) were male. Among the patients, 155 (51.7%) cases underwent general surgery, 119 (39.6%) cases orthopedic surgery, and 26 (8.7%) cases neurosurgery. The most popular prescribed antibiotics were cefazolin (170 cases) and ceftriaxone + metronidazole (67 cases). Furthermore, the maximum antibiotic administrations were two days (127 cases) and one day (93 cases). More importantly, 67.7% and 92.3% of the patients were in compliance with the standard protocol in terms of the type and time of administration, respectively. Conclusion: Our results showed that duration and route of administrating antibiotics were consistent with the standard pro- tocol, but the type of drugs and indication did not match.