Open AccessHepatitis C in several risk groups of Kosovo
Author(s) -
Albiona Rashiti-Bytyçi,
Naser Ramadani,
Premtim Rashiti
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of infection in developing countries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2036-6590
pISSN - 1972-2680
DOI - 10.3855/jidc.15090
Subject(s) - medicine , hepatitis c , population , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , hepatitis , health care , environmental health , pediatrics , family medicine , economics , economic growth
Infections with hepatitis C are on the rise. The statistics on the general population of Kosovo infected with hepatitis C is lacking. The study tends to detect sero-prevalence in the following risk groups: haemodialysis patients; patients of surgical units, internal medicine units, and mental health units; HIV-diagnosed patients, health professionals, and women in the prenatal period. A number of institutions, providers of medical care to these groups' patients, have been targeted.
Methodology: A total of 378 samples were collected from various institutions, with 347 of them being tested for anti-HCV and 31 being tested for RT-PCR assays.
Results: From the total of 387 samples, 72 samples (19.05%) resulted positive. The highest number was recorded in haemodialysis centres. In other groups, a low prevalence was recorded.
Conclusions: The study can conclude that high prevalence of HCV infection still remains a major health problem, especially in haemodialysis centres. In the future, it is planned to expand the study in the future to include other risk categories or the entire population.