Epidemiology of hepatitis C in central Portugal. Prevalence of anti-HCV in the population of the Coimbra District.
Anti-hepatitis C virus antibody (anti-HCV) screening was performed in a sample of the adult population of the Coimbra District. 657 persons were included (267 male and 390 female, mean age of 42.7 + 13.1 years), aleatorily chosen from four characteristic regions. Anti-HCV was detected using an ELISA-2 test and all positive sera were also tested with RIBA-2. General prevalence of anti-HCV was 0.46%. All positive patients live in urban areas and presented risk factors for HCV infection. Anti-HCV was found in 33.3% of intravenous drug abusers, in 1.8% of transfused individuals, in 1.33% of alcoholics (higher than 80 g/d alcohol ingestion), in 1% of cases with history of surgical operations, and in 0.65% of persons who lived in risk regions for hepatitis B. We conclude that anti-HCV prevalence is low in our region. We think it is important to perform other studies on larger samples of general population and to study risk groups.
Santos
A
A
Medical Department III, Coimbra University Hospitals.
Carvalho
A
A
Bento
D
D
Sá
R
R
Tomáz
J
J
Rodrigues
V
V
Pais
L
L
Porto
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000276:immunology*; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011174:Portugal / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies