Prevalence of HCV Infection among Patients of Medical College in NCR, Meerut, India

Background Hepatitis C virus is a small, enveloped, positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that causes hepatocellular carcinoma and lymphomas. Aim of study- To study the spectrum of presentation of HCV infection in the patients brought in the Medical college Hospital for a period of three months. Methods- A cross sectional study of 200 blood samples with no known history of hemodialysis, blood transfusion or needle injury brought for Testing HCV in a period of three months. Their serum is tested for HCV Abs by rapid immunochromatography, Enzyme Linked ImunoSorbent Assay (ELISA). Results- Out of 200 samples, 56 of male (28 %) and 144 (72 %) of female patients were screened.14 samples of patients were detected positive ( 07 %).05 male patients (8.92 %), 09 female patients ( 6.25 %) found positive.100 % patient from ICU was positive.28.57 % from Medicine department, 17.39 % from Surgery, 10.52 % from Gynecology department, 2.44 % from OPD were detected positive for HCV. The patients from Ortho, Pediatrics and ENT were found Non -Reactive to the HCV test. Conclusions- 14 ( 7 %) patients samples were found positive to HCV, higher than that of earlier studies. Age group of 21- 40 years were found worst affected in the study (71.42 %). The present study clearly indicates that a preventive screening of population at large in a well-defined manner is required in India.