Munir Ahmad Azhar, Bukhari M H, Usman Ghanni, Akbar Khan, Jaleel Iqbal Malik, Aftab Hassan Shah.
Prevalence of hepatitis C virus and its serotypes in Bahawalpur Divison.
Biomedica Jan ;19:18-22.

Objective: To find the prevalence of hepatitis C virus serotypes in Bahawalpur division Design: It was a prospective study to asses the frequency of HCV serotyping Settings All the patients coming for the treatment of liver disease from Jan 2000-Dec 2002 in the departments of medicine and consultants in BVH Bahawalpur Subjects and Methods 125 patients of chronic liver disease, with persistently raised SGPT and positive anti HCV and HCV RNA, were included in this study. All these sera were serotyped using Murex Serotyping 1-6 assay system. Results: Of 125 patients sera 105 (84%) were typable and 20 were (16%) untypable, no multiple serotypes were seen. Serotype 3 were 69.6% and serotype 1 (6%). Serotype 2,4,6 were also detected 4.8%, 2.4% and 0.8 respectively, No serotype 6 was seen. The disease state was compared to different HCV serotypes by and more cirrhosis was observed in serotype 1 as compared to serotype 3. Cirrhosis was also observed in non-typable cases. Risk factors identified from data were transfusions (29%), parentral therapy (20%), Health workers 25(20%), sharing blades, Homosexuality 10 patients (08%), Intravenous drug abusers (04%), previous surgery (6.8%), dentists (7.2%). No vertical group was seen in this study. Few other miscellaneous risk factors were pricking for ears and noses tattooing (in female groups). One patient returned from USA, developed cirrhosis due to serotype 1 gave the history of out of family sex contact. No significant difference was noted in different groups of serotypes for HCV. Conclusion: HCV serotypes 3 were more common and serotype 1 was related to more sever disease. Risk factors are more important to control the spread of HCV.

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