RISING BURDEN OF HEPATITIS C VIRUS (HCV) IN PAKISTAN: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY ON MULTITRANSFUSED BETA THALASSEMIA TYPE MAJOR PATIENTS

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a serious health issue which infected 3.3% of world’s population. The major transmission route of this virus is blood and blood products. Thalaseemic patients are dependent upon blood transfusions throughout their life and are at high risk of getting HCV infections. Objectives: The aim of the study was to estimate the presence of hepatitis C virus in multitransfused thalaseemic population of capital twin cities of Pakistan. Patients and Methods: The study was conducted from November 2021 to April 2022 and 262 multitransfused beta thalaseemic from the capital twin cities of Pakistan were enrolled for analysis. The presence of hepatitis C virus, alanine amino transferase (ALT) level, serum creatinine, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly and splenectomy were analyzed. Results: The overall prevalence of Hepatitis C virus was 55.73% observed with 100% of patients greater than 20 years of age have HCV infection. The average ALT in HCV positive thalaseemic patients was observed 98U/L and average creatinine values were 0.39 mg/dl. 82.20% of HCV positive thalaseemic patients have hepatomegaly with average increase of 4.33 cm in liver size. Splenomegaly was observed in 67.12% of HCV positive thalaseemic patients with average increase of 4.46 cm in spleen size. Splenectomy was observed in 15.75% of cases. Conclusion: The presence of HCV is very high in thalaseemic population of Pakistan. The chance of getting HCV infections also increases with the increase in age of thalaseemic patient. Raised ALT and hepatomegaly was observed in majority of HCV positive thalaseemic patients. There is a strong need to properly screen the blood before transfusions to decrease the future load of HCV from Pakistan.