ABSTRACT
The prevalence of hepatitis C is increasing day by day all over the world. Most particularly in Pakistan hundreds of thousands of people are dying by acquisition HCV virus. There is no vaccine available and its treatment is very expensive, we being the under-developed country, solely have an obvious option regarding accurate determination of risk factors in our community to minimize economic strain and scheming for better prevention strategies. The need of the day is to conduct such types of studies on immediate basis. Main objective of this study is to find out associated factors with hepatitis C through surveys and research for hepatitis C patients in Faisalabad. A cross sectional survey from 38 patients was conducted on self-designed questionnaire from one major hospital DHQ of Faisalabad. Further study was to analyse risk factors and its relationship to the family history. The most frequent risk factors among patients with hepatitis C are married patients, illiterate patients, family history of hepatitis, surgical operations and road accidents, patients’ age, patient history of jaundice, and shaving by barber. Married patients and family history of hepatitis are the common factors in both urban and rural population. Risk of hepatitis C is found to be highest in urban Married patients. It is concluded that some risk factors for the transmission of HCV are different in urban and rural areas. Moreover, in Pakistan, this study revealed that the family history of this disease is found to be a vital risk factor. Finally, our study Models can be used for the prediction of pattern of development of hepatitis C in majority of the patients.