摘要
Pakistan is declared a cirrhotic state by WHO because of high prevalence of Hepatitis C virus(HCV). It is proposed that there are more than 10 million infected individuals in Pakistan. Keeping in mind the scenario, one should expect to have proper surveillance system for HCV monitoring across the country not only for high risk groups but also for general population as well. Monitoring the general population is of considerable help to identify the hot spots for infection spread and will help in designing effective strategies. In this study the current available data from last 6 years is analyzed. The results showed that the range of HCV seroprevalence in general population in Pakistan varied from 3.13%-23.83%. Similarly year wise HCV prevalence showed great variation and the prevalence was 9.57%, 6.04%, 7.46%, 4.9% and 11.04% in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively. The current analysis declared that available data is not sufficient and is not presenting the original picture of the situation. On these basis, a proper surveillance system is proposed across the country to get an actual picture of the infection for better management in future and massive community education programmes should be warranted in identified hot spots across the country.
Pakistan is declared a cirrhotic state by WHO because of high prevalence of Hepatitis C virus(HCV). It is proposed that there are more than 10 million infected individuals in Pakistan. Keeping in mind the scenario, one should expect to have proper surveillance system for HCV monitoring across the country not only for high risk groups but also for general population as well. Monitoring the general population is of considerable help to identify the hot spots for infection spread and will help in designing effective strategies. In this study the current available data from last 6 years is analyzed. The results showed that the range of HCV seroprevalence in general population in Pakistan varied from 3.13%-23.83%. Similarly year wise HCV prevalence showed great variation and the prevalence was 9.57%, 6.04%, 7.46%, 4.9% and 11.04% in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively. The current analysis declared that available data is not sufficient and is not presenting the original picture of the situation. On these basis, a proper surveillance system is proposed across the country to get an actual picture of the infection for better management in future and massive community education programmes should be warranted in identified hot spots across the country.
