A Diagnostic Laboratory-Based Study on Frequency and Distribution of Viral Hepatitis B and C Among Sudanese.

Background: Hepatitis B infection is an alarming public health problem. Almost two billion people of the population alive today, would have been infected at some time in their lives by hepatitis B. Hepatitis C virus is another life threatening condition, and about 425,000 deaths occur each year due to its complications.The current study was carried out to provide care givers and health planners basic epidemiological data regarding the frequency and distribution of HBV and HCV based on age and sex during a time period of more than 5 years.

Result: A total of 2109 different patients were found to be infected by HBV during the study period; 1641 (77.81%) were males and 468 (22.19%) were females with the age group of 20-39 years predominating (64%). In addition,16% of patients tested for HBeAg were found reactive.

Conclusion: There were significant correlations observed between the levels of HBV DNA and ALT, AST and AFP. Regarding HCV, 70 males (54.9%) and 63 females (45.1%) were found to be infected, with preponderance of the age group 41 - 60 years and the genotype 4. Designing knowledge raising campaigns is appreciated as well as repetition of similar studies among larger populations in the following few years will help track a way to improvement.