The Prevalence of Hepatitis-B and Hepatitis-C Virus Infection in Selected Areas of Northern KP, Pakistan

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C viruses (HCV) are associated with severe liver diseases, including liver cancer and end-stage liver cirrhosis disease. The prevalence of HBV and HCV varies from one part to another in Pakistan. However, very limited published data is available related to the prevalence of HBV and HCV. Herein, we studied the prevalence rate of HBV and HCV infected patients in selected Northern areas of KP Pakistan. We collected and examined 850 suspected patient samples for hepatitis from two medical centers including, District Headquarter Hospital Bannu and Khalifa Gul Nawaz Teaching Hospital District Bannu from January 2023 to June 2023. Patients of both sexes who were more than 10 years old were screened using the Rapid Testing Method for the presence of HBV and HCV, and the results were validated using an ELISA kit. Just 46 samples out of 850 were positive, meaning that the proportion of suspicious samples was 5.41%. Males showed a higher infection ratio of 3.88% among 33/850. HBV was 39.3% (13/33) and HCV was 60.6% (20/33) in the positive sample of men 33/46. Similarly, out of the 13/46 total positive cases of HBV and HCV, we revealed that the infection ratio for women was (13/850) 1.529%. By comparative analysis, we found that among 13/46, HBV was (5/13) 38.4% and HCV was (8/13) 61.5%. According to age-wise prevalence, the group of people aged 31 to 40 had the greatest prevalence rate (33%) followed by the group of people aged 21 to 30 (26%) in terms of prevalence. We also observed a decreased rate of infection in Kohat by comparing the HCV data from the District Bannu to other areas.