Epidemiology of hepatitis C virus infection in a tertiary care hospital

Abstract Background There are epidemiological lacunae in literature of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We report a prospective observational study of asymptomatic HCV infected patients from a tertiary care Government Hospital. Methods All consecutive asymptomatic antibodies to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) positive patients were studied from July 2011 to April 2016. Patients were reviewed for demographic factors including symptom profile, risk factors, family screening, and point prevalence in relation to various districts of Punjab and Haryana. Results One thousand twelve patients were studied with median age of 52 years (range:13–85) with a male to female ratio of 0.87. Eight hundred (79.25%) patients were from Punjab and 110 (10.67%) from Haryana. Forty percent patients were in 40–60 age group. Six hundred seventy patients (66.21%) did not have any apparent risk factor, 274 (27.08%) had one risk factor, and 68 patients (6.72%) had > 2 risk factors. Commonest risk factor was h/o surgery in 243 patients (24.01%), 32 patients had h/o IV drug abuse and 29 among them were 30 years (p = 0.001). Conclusion HCV infection was common in certain districts of Punjab and common in adults of 40–60 years. This finding needs to be confirmed in larger population-based study. The IV drug abuse is the risk factor of concern among young adults.