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Prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis C virus infection in an informal settlement in Karachi, Pakistan

The burden of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in Pakistan is amongst the highest in the world. People living in slums are likely to be at high risk of infection. Here, we describe the results of a cross-sectional survey conducted in March 2022 that aimed to quantify the prevalence of HCV infection...

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Autores principales: Mansoor, Munazza, de Glanville, William A., Alam, Ridwa, Aslam, Khawar, Ahmed, Mubashir, Isaakidis, Petros, Pasha, Aneeta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10511086/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37729129
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002076
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author Mansoor, Munazza
de Glanville, William A.
Alam, Ridwa
Aslam, Khawar
Ahmed, Mubashir
Isaakidis, Petros
Pasha, Aneeta
author_facet Mansoor, Munazza
de Glanville, William A.
Alam, Ridwa
Aslam, Khawar
Ahmed, Mubashir
Isaakidis, Petros
Pasha, Aneeta
author_sort Mansoor, Munazza
collection PubMed
description The burden of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in Pakistan is amongst the highest in the world. People living in slums are likely to be at high risk of infection. Here, we describe the results of a cross-sectional survey conducted in March 2022 that aimed to quantify the prevalence of HCV infection in Machar Colony, one of the largest and oldest slum settlements in Karachi. Risk factors for HCV seropositivity were identified using multi-level logistic regression. We recruited 1,303 individuals in a random selection of 441 households from Machar Colony. The survey-adjusted HCV-seroprevalence was 13.5% (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 11.1–15.8) and survey-adjusted viraemic prevalence was 4.1% (95% CI 3.1–5.4) with a viraemic ratio of 32% (95% CI 24.3–40.5). Of 162 seropositive people, 71 (44%) reported receiving previous treatment for chronic hepatitis C. The odds of HCV seropositivity were found to increase with each additional reported therapeutic injection in the past 12 months (OR = 1.07 (95% Credible Interval (CrI) 1.00–1.13)). We found weaker evidence for a positive association between HCV seropositivity and a reported history of receiving a blood transfusion (OR = 1.72 (95% CrI 0.90–3.21)). The seroprevalence was more than double the previously reported seroprevalence in Sindh Province. The overall proportion of seropositive people that were viraemic was lower than expected. This may reflect the long-term impacts of a non-governmental clinic providing free of cost and easily accessible hepatitis C diagnosis and treatment to the population since 2015. Reuse of needles and syringes is likely to be an important driver of HCV transmission in this setting. Future public health interventions should address the expected risks associated with iatrogenic HCV transmission in this community.
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spelling pubmed-105110862023-09-21 Prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis C virus infection in an informal settlement in Karachi, Pakistan Mansoor, Munazza de Glanville, William A. Alam, Ridwa Aslam, Khawar Ahmed, Mubashir Isaakidis, Petros Pasha, Aneeta PLOS Glob Public Health Research Article The burden of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in Pakistan is amongst the highest in the world. People living in slums are likely to be at high risk of infection. Here, we describe the results of a cross-sectional survey conducted in March 2022 that aimed to quantify the prevalence of HCV infection in Machar Colony, one of the largest and oldest slum settlements in Karachi. Risk factors for HCV seropositivity were identified using multi-level logistic regression. We recruited 1,303 individuals in a random selection of 441 households from Machar Colony. The survey-adjusted HCV-seroprevalence was 13.5% (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 11.1–15.8) and survey-adjusted viraemic prevalence was 4.1% (95% CI 3.1–5.4) with a viraemic ratio of 32% (95% CI 24.3–40.5). Of 162 seropositive people, 71 (44%) reported receiving previous treatment for chronic hepatitis C. The odds of HCV seropositivity were found to increase with each additional reported therapeutic injection in the past 12 months (OR = 1.07 (95% Credible Interval (CrI) 1.00–1.13)). We found weaker evidence for a positive association between HCV seropositivity and a reported history of receiving a blood transfusion (OR = 1.72 (95% CrI 0.90–3.21)). The seroprevalence was more than double the previously reported seroprevalence in Sindh Province. The overall proportion of seropositive people that were viraemic was lower than expected. This may reflect the long-term impacts of a non-governmental clinic providing free of cost and easily accessible hepatitis C diagnosis and treatment to the population since 2015. Reuse of needles and syringes is likely to be an important driver of HCV transmission in this setting. Future public health interventions should address the expected risks associated with iatrogenic HCV transmission in this community. Public Library of Science 2023-09-20 /pmc/articles/PMC10511086/ /pubmed/37729129 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002076 Text en © 2023 Mansoor et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Mansoor, Munazza
de Glanville, William A.
Alam, Ridwa
Aslam, Khawar
Ahmed, Mubashir
Isaakidis, Petros
Pasha, Aneeta
Prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis C virus infection in an informal settlement in Karachi, Pakistan
title Prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis C virus infection in an informal settlement in Karachi, Pakistan
title_full Prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis C virus infection in an informal settlement in Karachi, Pakistan
title_fullStr Prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis C virus infection in an informal settlement in Karachi, Pakistan
title_full_unstemmed Prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis C virus infection in an informal settlement in Karachi, Pakistan
title_short Prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis C virus infection in an informal settlement in Karachi, Pakistan
title_sort prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis c virus infection in an informal settlement in karachi, pakistan
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10511086/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37729129
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002076
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