Prevalence of active hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in apparently healthy inhabitants of District Mansehra, Pakistan was surveyed during September, 2009 to May, 2010. Subjects of different age and gender groups were analyzed through random blood sampling from people of three areas viz; Tehsil Mansehra, Tehsil Balakot and Tehsil Oghi. Sum of 400 individuals, 300 male and 100 females with age groups from 10 years to 50 and above were included in the study. All the individuals were screened for antibodies against HCV. The positive samples thus screened, were subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis for detection of HCV-RNA. The results showed that 3.5% of the people of District Mansehra are actively infected with HCV whereas 7% of the population in general, has the presence of antibodies against HCV in their blood. It was also concluded that the prevalence of active HCV infection was high 4% in males as compared to females (2%). The prevalence of HCV proportionality increases with the increase in age of the people. Its incidence was highest (7.69%) in the people of the age group of 51 years and above, whereas no sign of infection was recorded for the age group of 10-20 years.

BackgroundHepatitis delta virus (HDV) and Hepatitis B virus (HBV) co-infection is well known to induce a spectrum of acute and chronic liver diseases which further advance to cirrhosis, fulminant hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).AimThe aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of hepatitis D virus super-infection among hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive individuals in the highly populated province of Pakistan which is not well known.MethodsSera samples were subjected to HBsAg and anti-HDV screening and finally anti-HDV and HBsAg positive coinfected samples were used for HDV active RNA confirmation using nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR).ResultsOut of total 200 HBsAg positive samples by rapid device, 96 (48%) were also found reactive for HBsAg using enzyme linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA). Out of these HBsAg ELISA positive samples, 80 (88.8%) were anti-HDV ELISA positive which were then subjected to PCR. The amplification results further confirmed 24 (30%) samples to be HDV RNA positive. HDV super-infection was more common in male patients than female patients (81% VS 19%).ConclusionThe current study shows a high prevalence rate of HDV-HBV co-infection in Pakistan that tends to increase over time.

High-risk-human papillomavirus (HR-HPV)-induced cervical cancer is the second most common cause of death among females worldwide. HPV16 is the most prevalent HR-HPV infection worldwide. This study found the genotypic distribution of HR-HPV in the local population and investigated the sequence variations among the E6 and E7 oncogenes of the local HPV16 genotype to the E6 and E7 oncogenes of the foreign HPV16 genotypes and constructed a phylogenetic relationship based on nucleotide sequence comparison among the variants identified in our study along with previously reported isolates that were obtained from different regions of the world. The samples were collected from patients with cervical cancer. Genomic DNA was extracted, and HR-HPV genotypes were determined using real-time PCR. The HPV16 E6 and E7 genes were amplified and sequenced. A HPV16 phylogenetic tree was constructed using the maximum likelihood method with MEGA 7. HPV16 was the most prevalent human papillomavirus (HPV) type identified in the present study. HPV16 isolates belonged to the A1 sublineage of the European branch. Twenty-one nucleotide sequences were included in this analysis. The first, second, and third codon positions are also included. The final dataset included 776 positions.