Version 1
: Received: 5 March 2023 / Approved: 6 March 2023 / Online: 6 March 2023 (06:34:18 CET)
How to cite:
Okonko, I.; Ernest Nwagwu, H. Serological Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus among Febrile Patients Attending a General Hospital in Emohua LGA, Rivers State, Nigeria. Preprints2023, 2023030094. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202303.0094.v1.
Okonko, I.; Ernest Nwagwu, H. Serological Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus among Febrile Patients Attending a General Hospital in Emohua LGA, Rivers State, Nigeria. Preprints 2023, 2023030094. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202303.0094.v1.
Cite as:
Okonko, I.; Ernest Nwagwu, H. Serological Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus among Febrile Patients Attending a General Hospital in Emohua LGA, Rivers State, Nigeria. Preprints2023, 2023030094. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202303.0094.v1.
Okonko, I.; Ernest Nwagwu, H. Serological Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus among Febrile Patients Attending a General Hospital in Emohua LGA, Rivers State, Nigeria. Preprints 2023, 2023030094. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202303.0094.v1.
Abstract
This study was to determine the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) among febrile patients attending a General Hospital in Emohua LGA, Rivers State, Nigeria. Eighty-nine patients, including 31 males and 58 females, aged 2 to 60 years, were recruited for this study. Blood samples were screened for antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) using a commercially available anti-HCV-Ab enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based kits following the manufacturer's description. The results showed an overall prevalence of 5.6%. Higher prevalence of HCV was observed among females (6.9%), age groups >41 years (11.1%), singles (7.9%) and patients with primary education (33.3%). Among all the variables evaluated, only education (p = 0.007) was significantly associated with the prevalence of HCV. Age (p = 0.21), sex (p = 0.47) and marital status (p = 0.42) were not associated with the prevalence of HCV among the studied population. This study showed a prevalence rate (5.6%) that is slightly alarmingly well above several other studies done in the past in Nigeria. The seropositivity of HCV among febrile patients remains a great danger to public health. Therefore, HCV screening by ELISA methods in all patients is recommended. Planned prevention, screening and treatment are needed to reduce further transmission.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
