Frequency of Occult Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) in Chronic Hepatitis C Patients.

Occult HBV is defined as the presence of HBV DNA in the liver tissue and / or HBV DNA in blood of people with negative HBsAg by currently available assays. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of occult HBV in chronic HCV patients. It was a cross-sectional study of one year duration including patients coming to the outpatient department with a positive HCV RNA by PCR from May 2018 to May 2019. Blood samples were taken to test HBsAg. Those cases who were HBsAg negative were checked for HBV DNA using real time PCR. A total of 217 cases were included in the study. Mean age was 41.3 + 14.61 years. All 217 cases of chronic HCV infection, which were positive for HCV RNA by PCR, were found to be negative for both HBsAg and HBV DNA. No occult HBV was detected in cases of chronic HCV infection seeking treatment. Key Words: Occult, Hepatitis B, Chronic hepatitis C.