Hepatitis C in Pakistan: a review of available data.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is increasingly recognized as a major health care problem, and is found frequently in Pakistani settings. In this article we reviewed published and unpublished data related to the seroepidemiology of HCV infection in Pakistan. For this article, data from 132 published studies and three unpublished data sets published/ presented between the period 1992-2008 were utilized. Data of 1,183,329 individuals were gathered. Blood donors (982,481) and the general population (178,322) constituted the majority of these subjects. The frequency of HCV infection in blood donors and in the general population was 3.0 % (95% CI: 3.0- 3.1) and 4.7 (95% CI: 4.6 -4.8), respectively. The frequency among 6,148 pregnant females was 7.3% (95% CI = 6.7 - 8.0). The frequency in healthy children ranged from 0.4 to 4.1% (95% CI = 1.4 - 2.3). Pakistani HCV serofrequency figures are significantly higher (P < 0.0001) compared to those of the corresponding populations in surrounding countries like India, Nepal, Myanmar, Iran and Afghanistan.
Department of Medicine, Rawalpindi Medical College, Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. drumarpk@yahoo.com
Muhammad
M
Umar
Hamama Tul
HT
Bushra
Masood
M
Ahmad
Available
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Data
Masood
M
Ahmad
Muhammad
M
Khurram
Saima
S
Usman
Mohammad
M
Arif
Tashfeen
T
Adam
Zahid
Z
Minhas
Adnan
A
Arif
Abdul
A
Naeem
Khushnud
K
Ejaz
Zameer
Z
Butt
Muhammad
M
Bilal