Seroprevalence of HCV among Cairo University students in Egypt

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is highly prevalent in Egypt. This work aimed at determining the seroprevalence of HCV among Cairo University students. The present study included 3,000 students from Cairo University, Egypt. Blood sample was obtained from each participant to be tested for HCV seromarker. HCV RNA detection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was carried out for those with positive anti-HCV. Overall prevalence rate of HCV antibody (anti-HCV) was 4.6%. It showed that the prevalence was relatively higher among females (86/1660; 5.2%) while males (51/1340; 3.8%) with no significant difference. PCR for HCV RNA was detected in 31.4% of the HCV antibody positive subjects (43/137). Which showed statistical significant difference between males (29/51) and females (14/86) at P = 0.001. Despite the prevalence rate reported in the present study was similar to anti-HCV prevalence among persons in the same age group, confirmed that HCV infection is detected among Cairo University students. J. Med. Virol. 88:1384-1387, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Declining prevalence of hepatitis C virus among university students in one of the main governorates in Egypt

“…However, our HCV-RNA prevalence among the 498 anti-HCV positive subjects (71.3%) is higher than that detected by Nafeh et al 28 as well as Esmat et al 25 who documented HCV RNA in 62.8% and 31.4% of the anti-HCV-positive subjects, respectively. This difference between anti-HCV and HCV RNA positivity is mainly explained by the spontaneous viral clearance through innate immunity response in acute HCV infections.…”

“… 24 Concerning our studied age group (15–19 years), our rates are definitely lower than that detected by EDHS 2008 (4.1%) 7 and Esmat et al report that there is 4.6% seroprevalence of anti-HCV among a comparably similar age group to our participants. 25 Our reported HCV prevalence is even lower than that reported for the least affected age group (1–9 years age). A previous study found that asymptomatic HCV infection in this pediatric age group is 2.02%.…”

“…Active HCV infection, as evidenced by HCV-RNA positivity, was reported in 0.7% of studied participants. This is also lower than that reported by Esmat et al 25 who found active infection in 1.4% and EDHS 2008 that reported prevalence of active infection to be 3.1% in the same age group. 7…”

“…Esmat et al also reported higher HCV prevalence among females (5.2%) than males (3.8%) but without statistical difference. 25 Population-based EDHS 2008 documented a higher prevalence in males (5.6%) than in females (2.7%). 7 Also, Nafeh et al declared that HCV prevalence was higher in males than females (11.3% vs 6.5%).…”

Circulating microRNAs as predictive biomarkers for liver disease progression of chronic hepatitis C (genotype‐4) Egyptian patients

“…Egypt is considered to have one of the highest prevalence rate of HCV, worldwide; with~14.7% of anti-HCV antibodies and 10% of chronic HCV infection. 2 It was reported that the incidence of HCV among Egyptians was around seven for every 1000 person/y corresponding to 500 000 infections every year. 3 Major HCV genotypes constitute genotype 1 to 6, while more than 50 subtypes are regarded, that have their specific patterns of geographical distribution.…”