ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

K.G. Raghu Kumar1, R. Eshwar Singh2, N.R. Chandrappa2, A.R. Hanumanthappa2, V. Vijayanath3 and M.R. Anitha4
1Department of Microbiology, S.S. Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre,
‘Jnana Shankara’ NH4 Bypass, Davangere – 577 005, India.
2Department of Microbiology, J.J.M Medical College, Davangere – 577 004, India.
3Department of Forensic Medicine, 4Department of Anatomy, S.S.Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre, Davangere – 577 005, India.
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2011;5(1):275-279
© The Author(s). 2011
Received: 03/11/2010 | Accepted: 18/12/2010 | Published: 30/04/2011
Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection represents a major health problem. Chronic HCV infection is generally asymptomatic with a large reservoir. The most common serious complication of blood transfusion is post-transfusion hepatitis from the HCV. The present study determines the distribution of antibodies to Hepatitis C virus (HCV) in diagnostic patients and blood donors attending a tertiary care hospital in Davangere. Blood samples were collected from 200 diagnostic patients whose blood samples were sent to laboratory for routine blood investigation – 128 (64%) males and 72 (36%) females. Also Blood samples were taken from 200 Blood donors – 170 (85%) males and 30 (15%) females. Detection of antibodies to HCV (anti-HCVs) was carried out by Enzyme Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA).

               Out of 200 diagnostic patients, 5(2.5%) were positive which included 2 (1.6%) male and 3 (4.2%) females. Out of 5 positive patients, 2 were CRF patients on Haemodialysis, 1 each was a case of Hepatitis, Pyrexia of Unknown Origin (PUO), and secondaries in liver. The patient with secondaries in liver was coinfected with Hepatitis B Virus(HBV) From 200 Blood donors, 4 (2%) donors were anti-HCV positive and all are males (2.4%). The overall HCV seroprevalence among diagnostic patients and blood donors was 2.0% (9/450). As per the literature search, no work has been done on this topic from in and around Davangere, hence the study was undertaken. This study provides the estimates of HCV seroprevalence in hospital based population and among blood donors. The seroprevalence in this population is similar to that reported from developing countries like India. The total reservoir of infection is significant and calls for public health measures, including health education to limit the magnitude of the problem.

Keywords

Hepatitis C virus, seroprevalence, blood donor, diagnostic patient, ELISA

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© The Author(s) 2011. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.