Atsbaha Ataklti Hailu, Asmelash Dejen Tsehaye, Belodu Rashmi, Getachew Konjit, Saravanan Muthupandian, Wasihun Araya Gebreyesus
Tigray Regional Health and Research Laboratory, P.O.Box: 1807, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Biomedical Science, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, P.O.Box: 1871, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
BMC Res Notes. 2016 Feb 23;9:121. doi: 10.1186/s13104-016-1936-3.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major health concern where about 3% of the world's population is infected globally. In Ethiopia the prevalence ranges from 0.9 to 1.3% in the general populations. Human immune deficiency virus (HIV) patients due to their weak immune response are heavily affected by the virus. There is no data on magnitude and associated risk factors for HCV infection among voluntary counseling, testing center and anti retroviral treatment clinic Attendants in the study area. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the sero-prevalence and associated risk factors for HCV infection among voluntary counseling testing and anti retroviral treatment clinic attendants Adwa general hospital.
Cross sectional study was carried out among 302 participants (151 HIV-negative from VCT and 151 HIV-positive from ART follow up) clinics of Adwa hospital from September to December, 2014. About 5 ml of venous blood samples were collected from study participants for anti HCV antibody tests. Univariate analyses were used to identify associated variables with anti HCV positivity. Variables having p < 0.05 were considered as statistically significant association.
Out of the total 302 participants, 52.6% of them were females and 47.4% males. The mean age of the participants was 34.1 year (SD ± 10.5). The overall sero-prevalence of HCV in this study was 4.3%. The prevalence HCV (6.6%) was higher among the ART clinic attendants than the VCT (2%) clinic attendants. History of hospitalization (p = 0.001), tooth extraction (p = 0.018) and blood transfusion (p = 0.041) showed statistically significant association with anti-HCV antibody.
HCV sero-prevalence in this study was high. The prevalence was three fold higher among HIV positive patients than their counter parts. Thus, screening of HCV should be done among HIV patients for close monitoring and better management in HIV patients.
丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）是一个重大的健康问题，全球约3%的人口受到感染。在埃塞俄比亚，普通人群中的患病率在0.9%至1.3%之间。人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）患者由于免疫反应较弱，深受该病毒影响。在研究区域的自愿咨询检测中心和抗逆转录病毒治疗诊所的医护人员中，尚无关于HCV感染的规模及相关危险因素的数据。因此，本研究的目的是确定阿德瓦综合医院自愿咨询检测和抗逆转录病毒治疗诊所医护人员中HCV感染的血清流行率及相关危险因素。
2014年9月至12月，在阿德瓦医院的302名参与者（151名来自自愿咨询检测的HIV阴性者和151名来自抗逆转录病毒治疗随访的HIV阳性者）诊所中开展了横断面研究。从研究参与者中采集约5毫升静脉血样本进行抗HCV抗体检测。采用单因素分析来确定与抗HCV阳性相关的变量。p<0.05的变量被认为具有统计学显著关联。
在总共302名参与者中，52.6%为女性，47.4%为男性。参与者的平均年龄为34.1岁（标准差±10.5）。本研究中HCV的总体血清流行率为4.3%。抗逆转录病毒治疗诊所的医护人员中HCV的患病率（6.6%）高于自愿咨询检测诊所的医护人员（2%）。住院史（p = 0.001）、拔牙史（p = 0.018）和输血史（p = 0.041）与抗HCV抗体显示出统计学显著关联。
本研究中HCV的血清流行率较高。HIV阳性患者中的患病率比其对应人群高两倍。因此，应对HIV患者进行HCV筛查，以便对HIV患者进行密切监测和更好的管理。
