PE-065 : Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus Infection among Nepalese Traumatic Patients

Aims: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health problem in the world affecting millions of people worldwide. HCV is prominently associated with significant morbidity and mortality in developing and developed countries due to its serious liver complication. The prevalence of HCV infection is almost 170 million persons globally and 0.1%- 1.7% in Nepal. To eradicate the spreading of HCV, the Nepalese government has been running lots of campaigns since last many years. The main aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of HCV infection among the traumatic patients which would uncover the current status for the effectiveness of Nepalese health policy. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 265 traumatic patients attending Alive Hospital, Chitwan, Nepal during the period of 1 year (January 2019 to February 2020). The antibody produced against the hepatitis C virus was detected from the serum obtained from the patients using the HCV-ELISA kit. The data analysis was done using SPSS. Results: Among 265 patients tested for HCV, 74.0% (196) were male and 26.0% (69) were female. The patients were from the age of 0.6 to 84 years old. The patients with the age of 15-30 years were higher (37.4%) than another age group. 1.1% (3) out of 265 were positive for HCV infection. 98.9% (262) patients were negative for the HCV antibody. The prevalence of HCV was higher (0.754%) in males than females (0.284%) (P-value <0.05). The highly infected patients were the age group of 31-55 years old. Additionally, the Buddhist community was predominantly infected. Conclusions: We conclude that HCV infection in the central region of Nepal is decreasing as compared to the previous reports and is relatively lower than in another developmental region of Nepal. It might be a possibility that increased mortality due to liver-related causes and an aging population may have contributed to a reduction in infection.