Molecular Prevalence of Triple Infection Hepatitis B, C and D Viruses in Sindh Pakistan

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Viral hepatitis is one of the major health problems worldwide, particularly in South East Asian countries includingPakistan where hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections are highly endemic. Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is also now emerging world-wide. HCV, HBV, and HDV share parallel routes of transmission due towhich dual or triple viral infections can occur in a proportion of patients at the same time. HBV and HCV areimportant factors in the development of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, while HDV infection also plays an important role in the liver damage.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to found out the molecular prevalence of triple infection HBV, HBC and HDV in Sindh.

STUDY DESIGN: Cross Sectional Descriptive Study.

PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: It was carried out at Diagnostic & Research Laboratory LUMHS Hyderabad from June 2017 to September 2018. 

MATERIAL AND METHODS/RESULTS: Whole Blood samples were collected in 5 ml vacutainer.Total 21816 samples were received from our laboratories/ collection centers located in 20 different cities of Sindh for detection of different Hepatitis viruses by PCR. Out of that 5335 samples were forHBV, 15366 samples for HCV and 1115 samples for HDV detection.  Serum was used to extract DNA & RNA of HBVand HCVrespectively by Abbott m2000sp and was amplified on m2000rtautomated instrument using commercially available kits of Abbott, while for HDV extraction was done using Roche high pure vial nucleic acid kit & amplication was done using light cycler mix kit (Roche) on instrument z480 (Roche). Out of the total 5335 HBV samples 4275 (80%) were positive and 1060 (20%) were negative, out of the total 15366 HCV samples 8763 (57%) were positive and 6603 (43%) were negative, out of the total 1115 HBD samples 594 (52.3%) were positive and 521 (46.7%) were negative.

CONCLUSION: It is concluded that the only way to prevent these triple infections is by educating the general population by massive awareness programs, extensive vaccination and other preventive measures to stop the spread of these alarming diseases in Sindh, Pakistan.