Short Communication - Prevalence of Hepatitis B and C and Assessment of Responsible Risk Factors among the Vulnerable β-Thalassemic Patients of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan

ABSTRACT Approximately 350 million patients of hepatitis B and 170 million patients of Hepatitis C are present worldwide according to WHO. Many risk factors are involved in the transmission of theses deadly viral infections but blood transfusion in Beta thalassemic patients is working with two faces...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inPakistan journal of zoology Vol. 52; no. 2; p. 793
Main Authors Shafique, Farheen, Ali, Shaukat, Saiqa Andleeb, Rauf, Abdul, Kazmi, Syed Ayaz, Idrees, Sadia, Farooq, Faisal, Faiq Nawaz Khan, Saad-ul-Hassan, Muhammad, Raja, Awais Mumtaz, Saba Khalid, Zaheem Ashraf, Hafiz Muhammad Tahir, Fazal-ur-Rehman
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Lahore AsiaNet Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd 30.04.2020
Subjects
Age
Antibodies
Antigens
Blood transfusion
Blood transfusions
Chromatography
Confidence intervals
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
Females
Hepatitis
Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B surface antigen
Hepatitis C
Infections
Males
Patients
Population
Risk analysis
Risk factors
Standard deviation
Studies
Thalassemia
Transfusion
Pakistan
India
Kashmir India
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:ABSTRACT Approximately 350 million patients of hepatitis B and 170 million patients of Hepatitis C are present worldwide according to WHO. Many risk factors are involved in the transmission of theses deadly viral infections but blood transfusion in Beta thalassemic patients is working with two faces, one as remedy and the other is key risk factor in the spread of silent killers. Thalassemia patients registered in Combine Military Hospital (CMH) Rawalakot and Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Hospital, Muzaffarabad Azad Jammu and Kashmir Pakistan were studied for the viral hepatitis B and C prevalence. A total of 303 (including 164 males and 139 females) individuals, aged between 1 and 12 years were studied. All the understudy participants were interviewed through questionnaire method. After taking written consent from each participant or guardian, 5 ml of blood was collected from each participant and brought to the working laboratory for HBV and HCV screening through ICT kit method. All ICT positive samples were further confirmed through ELISA. Individuals 25(8.2%) were found positive for both hepatitis B surface Antigen (HBsAg) and Anti hepatitis C antibody (Anti-HCV antibody) after initial screening with no coinfection of both diseases. Out of 25 total infected individuals, 05(1.6%) were found HBsAg positive and 20(6.6%) were found anti-HCV positive. All the ICT positive individuals were further confirmed by quantitative Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and 23(7.6%) individuals were confirmed for both hepatitis B and C including 05(1.6%) HBsAg positive as well as 18(5.9%) anti-HCV antibody positive individuals. We can conclude that 8.2% prevalence of hepatitis B and C among thalassemic patients is an alarming health concern which directly indicates to pay attention for ensuring 100% safe blood transfusion.
ISSN:0030-9923