Shakeri Mohammad Taghi, Nomani Hosein, Ghayour Mobarhan Majid, Sima Hamid Reza, Gerayli Sina, Shahbazi Shirin, Rostami Sina, Meshkat Zahra
Department of Biostatistics, Public Health School, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, IR Iran.
Hepat Mon. 2013 Mar 12;13(3):e7723. doi: 10.5812/hepatmon.7723. Print 2013 Mar.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a significant health problem throughout the world. Chronic form of the disease is found in about 75% to 85% of the newly infected individuals. The chronic infection may lead to severe forms including chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and with a higher mortality rate, hepatocellular carcinoma. Since no vaccine has yet been developed against HCV, there is an increasing need to take measures to control the spread of the infection. Therefore, epidemiologic study of the virus is important to manage and monitor the spread of the virus in the community.
The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of hepatitis C seropositivity in the general population of Mashhad, northeast of Iran.
Three thousand, eight hundred and seventy (3870) individuals living in the city of Mashhad were recruited using cluster sampling method. HCV seropositivity was determined with HCV antibody detection ELISA kit and was confirmed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method.
In this study the overall seroprevalence of hepatitis C was founded to be 0.2% by using ELISA method. However, the overall Hepatitis C virus infection prevalence was found to be 0.13% with RT-PCR method.
Our study suggested that the prevalence rate of Hepatitis C virus is below 1% in the general population of Mashhad.
丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染是全球一个重大的健康问题。约75%至85%的新感染个体患有慢性丙型肝炎。慢性感染可能导致包括慢性肝病、肝硬化在内的严重疾病，肝细胞癌的死亡率更高。由于尚未研发出针对HCV的疫苗，采取措施控制感染传播的需求日益增加。因此，对该病毒进行流行病学研究对于管理和监测病毒在社区中的传播非常重要。
本研究的目的是确定伊朗东北部马什哈德普通人群中丙型肝炎血清阳性的患病率。
采用整群抽样方法招募了3870名居住在马什哈德市的个体。使用HCV抗体检测ELISA试剂盒测定HCV血清阳性，并通过逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）方法进行确认。
在本研究中，使用ELISA方法测定丙型肝炎的总体血清阳性率为0.2%。然而，使用RT-PCR方法测定的丙型肝炎病毒总体感染率为0.13%。
我们的研究表明，马什哈德普通人群中丙型肝炎病毒的患病率低于1%。
