Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in Relation to Its Promotive Factors Among Human Urban Population of Multan, Pakistan

Aim: The present study was carried out to assess the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in relation to sex, age, promotive factors, associated symptoms and season among human urban population of Multan, Pakistan for a period of 28 months from June 2003 - October 2005.
Method: The present study was based on the data, collected randomly from the human population aging from 1-72 years. The population was divided into three age groups i.e old (age above 50 years), mature (age 13-50 years) and young (age below 13 years).
Results: The results from the present study suggested that among the observed urban population of Multan (n= 1166), prevalence of HCV was (6.68%). The prevalence of HCV when studied in different age groups of both sexes, it was found that prevalence of HCV was maximum (8.92%) in mature males as compared to young males (6.66%) and old males (7.69%). The prevalence of hepatitis C was higher (5.68%) in old females as compared to mature females (5.03%) and young females (5.17%).
Conclusion: The main promotive factors for HCV were contaminated barber, parlor tools (23.07%), unscreened blood transfusion (17.94%), contaminated dentist equipments (17.94%), infected syringes (15.38%), and contaminated surgery equipment (12.82%). The reported cases of HCV positive patients were maximum in summer (76.92%) as compared to (23.07%) in winter.