Seroepidemiological study of HCV infections in Shahrekord jail prisoners

Subject Areas : Molecular Microbiology

Elahe Tajbakhsh ¹ (Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran)
Farshid Paiedar ² (Health Assistant of Jail of Shahrekord, Shahrekord, Iran)

Received: 2008-11-15 Accepted : 2009-01-14 Published : 2009-01-01

Keywords: ELISA, Jail prisoners, HCV, Sharekord,

Abstract :

Background and Objectives: Jail prisoners with or without drug addiction is an high risk population for affecting of different blood born viral complications like hepatitis type C virus (HBV) infection. Then, in this research the seroepidemiological prevalence of HCV infections and also the possible role of different risk factors of HCV complications were evaluated in jail prisoners of Sharekord. Materials and Methods: In this investigation, the plasma samples of 600 Sharekord jail prisoners were collected and preserved in -20°C. The prevalence of HCV-Ab was monitored by a third generation ELISA protocol in these plasma samples. The possible role of different HCV risk factors like: sex, marriage, history of drug injection, and types of drug addiction, history of prisonership, history of tattooing, transfusion of blood and blood products, unethical sex relationship, and the knowledge of prisoners from the route of HCV transmission were statically analyzed by SPSS and Instat soft wares. Results: HCV-Ab was diagnosed in seventy six of 600(12.66%) jail prisoners by ELISA method. Also the relationship of HCV infection with different risk factors including: sex, marriage, history of drug injection, and types of drug addiction, history of prisonership, history of tattooing, transfusion of blood and blood products, unethical sex relationship, and the knowledge of prisoners from the route of HCV transmission were as follow: 8.16%, 10.66%, 5.83%, 9.16%, 7.33%, 0.33%, 2.16%, 1.0%, and 10.5%. Significant associations were not detected between HCV infections with sex, marriage, transfusion of blood and blood products, unethical sex relationship and knowledge of prisoners from the route of HCV transmission. But significant associations were detected between HCV infections with history of drug injection, and types of drug addiction, history of prisonership, tattooing, and age grouping. Conclusion: Detection of significant associations between HCV infections with history of drug injection, and types of drug addiction, history of prisonership, tattooing, and age grouping, and diagnosis of insignificant associations between HCV infections with different HCV risk factors and also diagnosis of different prevalence of HCV-Ab in jail prisoners announced the need of completed study in other jail populations.