Seroprevalence of Hepatitis-C Virus in Blood Donors and High Risk Individuals

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) continues to be a major disease burden affecting about 200 million people in world. Using blood donors as a prevalence source may underestimate the real prevalence of the virus because the donors are highly selected population. Presently more evidences support intravenous drug use as leading risk factor for the spread of virus. OBJECTIVES: The study aims at finding out the seroprevelance of Hepatitis C virus in high risk individuals as well as healthy blood donors. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: The study group comprise of 350 subjects which included 150 healthy voluntary donors as control group and 200 subjects taken from different high risk population like intravenous drug abuser (50), patients on long term haemodialysis (40), patients with chronic liver disease (50), HIV positive cases (30), health care workers (30). STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Percentage. RESULTS: Seropositivity for anti HCV antibody was found to be 12% (24/200) among high risk population and 0.66 % (1/150) in healthy voluntary blood donors. Among different high risk groups, maximum prevalence rate 28% (14/50) was found in I.V drug abusers. Fifty percent (7/14) of the seropositive parenteral drug abusers were male in the age group of 21-30 years followed by 35.7% (5/14) in 31-40 years of age group. Only one female (7.14%) between 21-30 years was found to be sero-reactive for antiHCV antibody. In HIV co-infected cases 13.33 % (4/30) were seropositive for antiHCV antibody. In chronic liver disease (two hepatocellular carcinoma, one cirrhosis and one chronic hepatitis) and long standing haemodialysis, the prevalence rate for anti HCV was found to be 8% (4/50) and 5% (2/40) respectively. None of the health workers (0/30) found to be sero-reactive for antiHCV antibody. CONCLUSIONS: HCV poses a serious worldwide health problem affecting people from all walks of life in every country. In the present study 12% and 0.66% HCV prevalence was noticed in high risk group and healthy blood donors respectively. Among high risk group maximum prevalence (58.33%) was found in IV drug abusers. Prevention should target the reduction of virus transmission by health education, risk reduction counseling and thorough HCV screening following the suggestion of CDC,

Seroprevalence of hepatitis C in renal failure patients on maintenance hemodialysis - Study in a tertiary care hospital - Western India

“…Our study showed HCV prevalence of 2.7% among the patients on maintenance dialysis. It is concordant with similar studies in India carried out by Pooja et al (4%) [6] , Poddar et al (5%), [7] and Reddy (5.9%). [8] Jasuja et al [9] and Kumar et al [10] reported a prevalence of 27.7% and 12.4%, respectively.…”

Prevalence of Antibodies to Hepatitis C Virus in Voluntary Blood Donors: Are Women Better Donors?

“…Based on this, nucleic acid testing (NAT) can be used as an alternative [35]. A recent report from New Delhi showed that 38 sera from VBD [24,25,6,26,27,29,30] X axis-Place of study and year; Y axis-Percent prevalence of anti-HCV…”

“…The prevalence of HCV has been showing a downfall since then. The percentage seroprevalence of anti-HCV in VBD in various places in India before year 2000 was reported to be between 0.7-15 [Table/ Fig-3] and it was more than one in most of the reports [18][19][20][21][22][23]; while that after year, 2000, it had ranged from 0.13 to 1.09 [Table/ Fig-4] and it was less than one in most of the reports [6,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. This clear reduction was a very good sign and it reflected the effects of control measures.…”

Prevalence of HCV Antibodies in Chronic Liver Disease Patients in Tertiary Care Hospital

“…Chronic liver disease (CLD) is a disease of the liver resulting from an inflammation due to infiltrative, immunological, mechanical or metabolic injury to the liver, which has persisted for six or more months without complete resolution (Laraba et al, 2009) Viral infections account for significant proportion of CLD. Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C viruses account for 75% of all cases of liver disease around the world (Nirmala Poddar et al, 2012). WHO estimates 170-200 million people are chronically infected with HCV worldwide (Hanaa Ali Naem and Hassan J. Hasony, 2015).…”

“…WHO estimates 170-200 million people are chronically infected with HCV worldwide (Hanaa Ali Naem and Hassan J. Hasony, 2015). HCV can lead to chronic liver disease causing cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and end stage liver disease among 5-20% of infected persons (Nirmala Poddar et al, 2012). In India about 20 million people are known to have HCV infection and a quarter of them expected to develop chronic liver disease in the next 10-15 years.…”