Seroprevalence and Genotype Distribution of Hepatitis C Virus in Mogadishu, Somalia: A Comprehensive Study

Abstract

Liver cancer is the second-most common form of cancer among men in Somalia. However, data on the epidemiology of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are limited. This study aimed to examine the basic epidemiological characteristics of HCV infections, in Mogadishu, Somalia. In this study, anti-HCV seropositivity was investigated in participants who applied to a tertiary care hospital in Mogadishu between 2015 and 2019 using an Architect anti-HCV immunoassay. HCV genotype determinations were performed in two different accredited external laboratories located in Turkey. A total of 115,659 tests were included the study reported for 102,601 different individuals and anti-HCV seropositivity were found for 1,447 different patients (1.41%).Seropositivity was found as 0.26% among healthy individuals (20/7,789), which is a subgroup of the study population. Furthermore, seropositivity was found in 0.26% (55/20,784) of individuals under the age of 20 years and 6.2% (424/6,837) of aged >70 years. Finally, seropositivity was significantly more prevalent among men than among women (1.64% and 1.15%, respectively; p<0.0001). Seventy-three HCV genotypes were determined in 71 patients, including Genotype 1a (5.48%), Genotype 1b (10.96%), Genotype 3 (31.5%), ©Copyright JMVI. Licenced by Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).