title: Epidemiology of hepatitis C in central Portugal. Prevalence of anti-HCV in the population of the Coimbra District.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Medical Department III, Coimbra University Hospitals.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carvalho
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bento
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sá
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tomáz
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pais
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Porto
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies