Via practica 6/2011

Hepatitis C virus prevalence among general population and risk groups in Slovak republic

The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of HCV infection among general population and selected risk groups of patients – haemodialysis patients (HDP), injection drugs users (IDUs), prisoners and health care workers. Patients and methods: A total number of 3 338 probands of both sexes, aged from 15 to 83 years were enrolled in the study. The serum were collected from 1 588 probands from general population, 1151 health care workers, 413 HDP, 98 IDUs and 88 from prisoners, respectively. Serum specimens were tested by anti-HCV screening test (Innotest HCV AbIII, Innogenetics, Belgium). Anti-HCV positive samples were further tested by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR, Cobas Amplicor, HCV test version 2.0, Roche diagnostic system, USA). Results: The high prevalence of anti-HCV/HCV RNA by PCR method was detected in 49 %/39 % in prisoners, following by risk group of IDUs 42 %/26 %. On the other side lower prevalence were in general population 0,6 %/0,2 % a helath care workers 0,3 %/0,3 %. Coclusion: We demonstrated that prevalence in general population and health care workers is low, in contrast with those observed in HDP, IDUs and prisoners.

Keywords: prevalence, hepatitis C virus (HCV), risk group of injecting drug users, HCV genotypes, distribution