HCV IN PUNJAB

Background: HCV is the foremost cause of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellularcarcinoma and its prevalence is increasing in developing countries like Pakistan. Present studyis focusing on its frequency in different districts of the Punjab of Pakistan. Setting: Differentdistricts of Punjab. Period: Jan 2010 to Dec 2010. Material and methods: 5ml venous bloodwas collected from each donor by using disposable syringes. Sample is transferred to vialscontaining anticoagulant, centrifuged and plasma was separated for further analysis.140 ulplasma of every patient was analyzed for HCV RNA Virus by Real time PCR using Artus HCVQuantification kit (Germany).For statistical analysis SPSS 16 was used. Results: A total countof 3262 samples was collected from 32 districts of the Punjab and all these samples were bothrapid HCV screening and Anti HCV by Elisa positive. Out of which 2041 (62.57%) patientswere detected positive for HCV, 1221 (37.4%) were not detected.49.5%patients were malewhile50.5% were female. 30.99% males were detected positive including patients with low viralload. 31.58% were detected positive for HCV including low positive female patients.30.71%females were detected positive for HCV, 37.5% were not detected for HCV. Conclusion: Highestprevalence of HCV among different age groups is found in age group of 36-40 years with12.23% and lowest is found in age group > 15 years with 0.31% (p=0.009).