Hepatitis C, a silent threat to the community of Haryana, India: a community-based study

Abstract

Background Hepatitis C is a global public health problem. As many as 12 million people may be chronically infected in India and most are unaware of it. Aims To determine the incidence of hepatitis C in the Ratia block of the Fatehabad district, Haryana, India. Method This cross-sectional study was carried out by house-tohouse visits over 2 weeks. After obtaining written consent, a blood sample was drawn from suspected cases by a laboratory technician maintaining all necessary safety precautions and sterilization. Results Of the samples, 1,630 (22.3 per cent) were found to be positive for hepatitis C by ELISA, 253 (15.5 per cent) patients were previously hepatitis C positive, and adults (21-60 years) were affected maximally (70.0 per cent). Conclusion The study emphasises the need for public awareness campaigns at various levels and prevention of HCV infection. It also suggests the need to develop and strengthen evaluation methodology for the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP).

Molecular epidemiological analysis of three hepatitis C virus outbreaks in Jammu and Kashmir State, India

“…This correlates well with the observations of other researchers who investigated blood-borne viral hepatitis outbreaks (Patel et al, 2012;Verma et al, 2014). From this, we conclude that this age group, being the most productive, seeks injections more often than others for any illness, based on the belief that injections are a more effective treatment than oral medications and will achieve a faster cure and hence decrease morbidity and disability days.…”

“…The common modalities of HCV infection are blood transfusions, injection drug use, unsafe therapeutic injections and healthcare-related procedures. In developed countries, the predominant cause of HCV infection is intravenous drug use, whereas in India, blood transfusions and unsafe therapeutic injections are the predominant means of transmission (Verma et al, 2014).…”

Burden of hepatitis C virus infection in India: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“… †Two of these six studies (references ) were deemed to carry a high risk of bias and were excluded from analysis (please see text for details).…”

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“…Symptoms like malaise and body ache are found among 14% of patients in this study 19 . In community, till very late stage of disease, these non -specific symptoms were treated symptomatically and blood tests were usually not carried out.…”