A STUDY OF SOME EPIDEMIOLOGICAL FEATURES OF HEPATITIS C VIRUS AMONG BLOOD DONORS

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is responsible for the most sporadic and post-transfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis throughout the world< 1l. The importance of HCV infection lies in its ability to cause insidious and progressive liver damage in the majority of those infected. At least 70% of the individuals who contract HCV will develop chronic liver disease, progress to cirrhosis, and 1% to 2% will develop liver cancer after 10 to

20 year period<3l.

It is estimated that there are 300 million carriers of the virus, about

2.5 million in Europe. The prevalence of antibody to hepatitis C virus in the United states is 1.8%. This prevalence corresponds to an estimated 3.9 million HCV-infected Americans. The highest overall prevalence was found in persons 30 to 49 years old (3o/o-4%). Although death from fulminant hepatitis C is rare, an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 deaths from HCV-associated chronic liver disease occur annually(3).

In between blood donors hepatitis C is carried by about 0.01-2% world wide(7). The prevalence in UK and Scadinavia is only 0.01-0.1% and in USA only 0.3%. Egypt seems to have the highest prevalence in blood donors. Anti HCV was found in 12% of rural primary children, 22.1% of army recruits, 16.4% in children with hepatosp1enomegaiy< 9

and 11.5% of population in village in the Nile Delta<400

Furthermore, the incidence of HCV antibodies was reported to be increased in schistosomal patients especially in late advanced cases<414l. This can be explained by the fact that schistosoma! patients are more