STUDY TO KNOW THE PREVALENCE OF HCV INFECTION IN PATIENTS OF RURAL ARES OF SOUTHERN PUNJAB AND ITS GENOTYPE

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and its genotypic dispensation in rural areas of Southern Punjab. Study Design: A retrospective study. Place and Duration: The patients attending the free liver clinic located in the rural areas of Southern Punjab for the period of two year from January 2015 to January 2017. The cities include Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Multan. Methodology: The patients enrolled in the Free Liver clinic and HCV detection of antibodies (n = 1638) in blood attending the hospital OPD of rural areas of southern Punjab. All patients had antibodies to HCV tested by ELISA. 1022 total patients who tested were having "reactive" antibodies against HCV and were able to economically solve HCV RNA analysis by PCR analyzed their results. 200 total patients also had genotyped and analyzed HCV. Results: FLC patients are more likely to be reactive for anti-HCV antibodies when compared with the volunteer blood donor (- 14% vs 15% p = 0.005). In 905/1023 HCV RNA was detected in (88%) patients. Among genotypes that could not be analyzed, 126/167 (76%) had a single genotype and in 7 patients (4%) 3rd type of genotype 1 was detected, only (n = 4) or together. Conclusion: 1 out of 5 volunteers tested in our FLC and in healthy 'volunteer blood donor 14% have HCV antibodies were detected. In our region Genotype 1 is not very common. Key words: Seroprevalence, Hepatitis C, genotype, blood donors