SERO-PREVALENCE OF HEPATITIS C VIRUS INFECTIONS AMONG BLOOD DONORS AND CLINICAL VISITORS IN AMRAN GOVERNORATE,YEMEN

Ali Al-Hatheq, Adam Dawoud Abakar, Bashir Al-Ofairi*

ABSTRACT

Hepatitis C virus is identified as a member of the RNA Flaviviridae that can cause acute and chronic infections in human. So, the present study was conducted in Amran general hospital, Amran city, Yemen, eight hundred (800) members: 500 (63%) from blood donors, 300 (37%) from clinical visitors, 680(85%) were males and 120 (15%) were females. Out of 800 human samples: 10 (2%) were positive for HCV among blood donors, 8 (2.7%) were positive for HCV among clinical visitors, which were detected by immune-chromatographic technique (ICT) and were further processed by ELISA:12 (2.4%) were positive for HCV among blood donors, 10 (3.3%) were positive for HCV among clinical visitors, the validity of ICT was high: Specificity (100%) and Sensitivity (81.8%). The overall prevalence of anti-HCV among blood donor were 22 (2.8%) and clinical visitors 18(2.8).Our results showed 13/22 (59.1%) cases were positive from Amran city, while 9/22 (40.9%) cases were positive from rural area, there were no significant differences (P >0.05) were found between gender, residency, marital status, ages groups and occupational and & educational status. Finally, our findings also showed that the most risk factor of HCV infection were visitors to dentists, followed by family history, surgery, perinatal injuries, blood transfusion and cupping.

Keywords: HCV infections, Blood donors, Clinical Visitors, Amran,Yemen.