Naila Azam, Kehkeshan Mufti, Nusrat Zafar.
Frequency of hepatitis B & C in young male recruits from rural Pakistan.
PAFMJ Jan ;59(1):109-12.

Objective: To know the frequency of HBV and HCV amongst male recruits. Study Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Place and duration of study: Pathology laboratory CMH Malir Cantt over a period of six months (June to December 2005). Materials and Methods: Recruits from rural areas of all provinces of Pakistan reporting to Pathology laboratory CMH Malir Cantt for screening of HBV and HCV before enrollment in army. Results: During the period of this study a total of 3320 recruits were screened for hepatitis B and C viral infections. Overall Seropositivity of anti HCV was found to be 3.2% while 4.5 % of recruits tested positive for HBsAg. Province wise distribution showed Sindh had the highest frequency of HCV positive cases i.e 6.4% though Punjab had almost equal values of HBV and HCV of around 4%. While 2.7% of those from NWFP tested positive for HBsAg and 1.4% of them for Anti-HCV. Balochistan and Northern areas had no more than 0.5% of HBsAg positive cases while there was no hepatitis C positive candidate from these areas. Conclusion: This study indicates that young healthy, recruits from all the four provinces revealed an overall 4.5% frequency of HBsAg carriers and 3.2% of the screened population.

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