Prevalence of hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus infection in multitransfused thalassaemia major patients in northwest frontier province

ABSTRACT

To determine the prevalence of hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus infection in multitransfused thalassaemia patients. A prospective study. Department of Pathology, Khyber Medical College Peshawar and Fatimid Foundation Peshawar from January 2000 to January 2001. This study was carried out on 250 multitransfused thalassaemia major patients. They were screened for hepatitis B surface antigen [HBsAg] and anti hepatitis C virus antibodies [anti-HCV antibodies] by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay [ELISA]. The patient's ages ranged from 1[1/2] year to 19 years. Majority of the patients included in the study had received more than 10 transfusions. The males were 180 [72%] and the females were 70 [28%]. Out of these 21 patients [8.4%] and 142 [56.8%] have been screened positive for HBsAg and anti HCV antibodies respectively. It has been recommended that properly screened blood, using a reliable method like ELISA, be only transfused to thalassaemic subjects in order to avoid / reduce transfusion associated infection