FREQUENCY OF HEPATITIS B & C INFECTION IN NEWLY RECRUITED CIVIL SERVANTS IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA

• Main Authors: Muhammad Tariq Mehr, Humera Khan, Qamar Un Nisa, Noor Ul Iman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Khyber Medical University 2013-06-01
• Series: Khyber Medical University Journal
• Online Access: https://www.kmuj.kmu.edu.pk/article/view/11224

OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of hepatitis B virus (HBV) &hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections in healthy individuals selected fornew recruitment in civil service in various governments departmentsof Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. METHODOLOGY: This descriptive study was carried out in Police &Services Hospital, Peshawar from 15-07-2011 to 15-10-2012. All thenewly recruited government personal (total 4639) in various cadres frombasic pay scale (BPS) 01 to 18, divided in two groups (groups-1: fromBPS 01-14 and group-2 from BPS 15-18) attending the hospital wereincluded in the study. Three millilitre of blood was subjected to rapidscreening using the Immunochrmatographic (ICT) kit. All the positivecases on the rapid screening were confirmed by 3rd Generation ELISAtechnique. RESULTS: Out of 3012 individuals in group-1, ranging in age from 18 to30 years (mean 23.22 + 0.53 years), frequency of HBV was 4.5% & 3%,HCV was 5.2% & 3.8 % and dual HBV/HCV was 2.1% & 1.7% in malesand females respectively. While in group-2, having 1627 individuals rangingin age from 18 to 36 years (mean 24.67+ ± 0.61 years), frequencyof HBV was 2.3% & 1.8%, HCV was 2.2% & 2% while both HBV/HCVwas 0% and 0.7% in males and females respectively. CONCLUSION: The frequency of HBV & HCV infections remains highin Khyber Pukhtunkhwa especially in the low income groups despiteapparently normal health. More extensive seroprevalance and frequencystudies recruiting various segments of the society are needed to determinethe true prevalence.