Frequency of hepatitis B and C in young male recruits from rural Pakistan

ABSTRACT

To know the frequency of HBV and HCV amongst male recruits. Cross-sectional descriptive study. Pathology laboratory CMH Malir Cantt over a period of six months [June to December 2005]. Recruits from rural areas of all provinces of Pakistan reporting to Pathology laboratory CMH Malir Cantt for screening of HBV and HCV before enrollment in army. During the period of this study a total of 3320 recruits were screened for hepatitis B and C viral infections. Overall Seropositivity of anti HCV was found to be 3.2% while 4.5% of recruits tested positive for HBsAg. Province wise distribution showed Sindh had the highest frequency of HCV positive cases i.e 6.4% though Punjab had almost equal values of HBV and HCV of around 4%. While 2.7% of those from NWFP tested positive for HBsAg and 1.4% of them for Anti-HCV. Balochistan and Northern areas had no more than 0.5% of HBsAg positive cases while there was no hepatitis C positive candidate from these areas. This study indicates that young healthy, recruits from all the four provinces revealed an overall 4.5% frequency of HBsAg carriers and 3.2% of the screened population