Prevalence of active HCV infection and genotypic distribution among the general population of district Mardan, Pakistan.

N Ullah,H Ahmad,T Kumar,L Xi,M Shah,M A Kakakhel,I Khan,Y Bai,L Guanlan,B S Kalra,C Zhang

doi:10.1590/1519-6984.244977

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the serious global public health burden of liver disease. Approximately 170 million people in the world are infected with (HCV). In Pakistan, where the disease has high occurrence rate. The present study envisages an up-to-date prevalence of HCV and genotypic distribution in the general population of Mardan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. The blood samples from 6,538 individuals including 3,263 males and 3,275 females were analyzed for hepatitis C surface antigen by Immuno-chromatographic test (ICT), Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (PCR). It was found that 396 (12.13%) out of 3263 individuals contained antibodies in their blood against HCV, while among the different age groups, the highest incidences of HCV antibodies were found in the 31-40 age group (11.01%). The ICT positive samples were further screened by nested PCR to determine the existence of active HCV-RNA. It was identified that 7.11% (3263) of the total population (6538) tested was positive, among which the 461 (14.07%) females possessed antibodies in their blood against HCV. Our data showed total HCV infection in the investigated population was 5.78%. Higher percentage of HCV prevalence was detected in males than females in the age group 31-40 and 41-50. To compare the prevalence of HCV genotypes age-wise in male and female genotype 3a was found most prevalent genotype followed by 1a, 2a and 3b, respectively.

Highlights

HCV is a chronic infectious disease of the liver caused by a single strand RNA of Hepatitis C virus The virus belongs to the genus hepacivirus affects the liver leading to morbidity and mortality (Bashir et al, 2017; Choo et al, 1989; Tariq et al, 2016)
All blood samples were tested for the presence of anti-HCV antibodies by using Immuno-chromatographic test (ICT) and Enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
The nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay of the samples positive by either ICT or ELISA revealed that 232 of 7.11% males are with active HCV RNA in their blood (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

HCV is a chronic infectious disease of the liver caused by a single strand RNA of Hepatitis C virus The virus belongs to the genus hepacivirus affects the liver leading to morbidity and mortality (Bashir et al, 2017; Choo et al, 1989; Tariq et al, 2016). Which were learnt about 15 years later after the discovery of HCV. According to the World health organization (WHO), HCV has infected almost 200 million individuals worldwide and resulted in 350,000 deaths (Tariq et al, 2016). HCV infected individuals may suffer from lethal liver cancer/dysfunction and liver injury (Imran et al, 2013)

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Conclusion