HCV IN EGYPT

HCV IN EGYPT

Introduction

Hepatitis c is an illness that infects the liver and causes the inflammation of the latter. The HCV virus leads to the development of the illness, which can be either acute or chronic. Depending on the severity of the latter, the disease can last for just a number of weeks or go on for the rest of the individual’s life. One of the common impacts of the virus is the development of the cancer of the liver. Five stages of the latter is the incubation period, which ranges from fourteen to eighty days and an average of forty-five. The second stage is the acute hepatitis c, which is a sickness that lasts for six months after the initial infection but can easily be eradicated. Chronic phase this comes if the body fails to eliminate the latter, which becomes a lifetime illness that can even cause cancer besides cirrhosis. The fourth stage is cirrhosis, which replaces the healthy liver cells with scar tissue, which takes an average of twenty years to occur. The last step is liver cancer, which is mostly caused by cirrhosis. Different parts of the world have different rates of the prevalence of the illness. The following content brings out the prevalence of the disease in Egypt.

Main body

According to a study conducted in the year 2010, was conducted to test the rate of the virus transmission in Egypt. The study was also done based on the people living with the infected people in the rural areas of Egypt. There was an indication of “(incidence rate of 2.4/ 1000; 95% CI: 1.6-3.5)”. The results also indicated the median age to be 26 years for the male counterparts, which also ranged between (19-35) years.

On the other hand, the females indicated a median age of 20 years, which also showed a range of (13-24) years. As stated earlier, the study also used people in the family to conclude. One of the leading causes of the spread of the virus is attributed to the injections, which also caused an infection from the family members. The results showed that family members contracted the disease from the infected members; at least one member ended up infected with the latter. The rural areas also indicated injections as the main cause of the infections (Mostafa et al. 2010).

According to a report give this year (2019) showed that starting 2014 to 2017, 7806 patients tested positive for the ELISA test, and 252 of the patients were infected with HCV. Of the people on the list were above forty-five years of age. The incidence of this period also showed a decrease in the infection rate, which came from 3.9% to 1.5% “(RR=0.4, CI 0.2-0.7)” some of the risk factors that are linked to the infections are therapeutic injections (Talaat et al. 2019).

Moreover, people that were imprisoned were highly infected with the virus than the free people as there is a frequent sharing of the personal items. Reports also indicate that HCV infects 30 % of the prison population. There is also the indication that women are affected by the latter than men (women-37.9% versus 28.3%-men). There was also research on why women are exposed to the illness than men are such as the use of drugs, risky sexual behaviors, and the education level. The results indicated “2.53 (1.33-3.57), 4.83 (3.54-6.59), and 2.18 (1.33-3.57): sniffing drugs, risky sex and higher levels of education, respectively” for men and “4.46 (3.21-6.21), 1.94 (1.43-2.63), and 3.10 (2.09-4.61) exposure to surgery, aesthetic procedures, and blood transfusions” for women. In total, 57.7% of the women were affected by the virus. Women are more likely to engage in risky actions more often than men hence the high rate (Zampino et al. 2018)

In 2018, a series of studies were done to check the genotypes mostly affected by the virus. Seven diverse genotypes were used in the comparison. Genotype one indicated four percent with 191 people. Genotype two had 60 people with 1.2%; genotype three had 39 people with 0.8%; genotype four has 4, 735, which had 94.1%, and the last was genotype five, which had six people infected with 0.1%. Genotype four of the virus was found among most of the people, such as blood donors, pregnant women, health care workers, and children with infected parents. Thus people that had direct contact with body fluids were exposed more to genotype four (Kouyoumjian et al. 2018).

Referring to the ELISA test done on different people, HCV had a percentage of 3% while HAV had 93.4%, HBV had 2.8%, and HEV had 0.4%. Hence compared to the rest, HCV had a low rate of infection. Compared to HBV, HCV has a higher fatality rate. The government put in place policies that led to a decrease in the price of disease, which dropped from 3.9% to 1.5% (Talaat et al. 2019).

Conclusion

To wrap up, it is evident that in Egypt, the infection starts at a young age, but older people have more people infected than the youths. Besides, the chronic type of HCV is found more on older people than the young. Generally, men have been indicated to have a chronic illness than women due to lifestyle. In prison, women are also more exposed to the disease due to the use of therapies that expose people to body fluids. Families with patients infected with the virus also indicate a chance of one of the family members being infected. Generally, the median age for the infection among the males is 24, while for females, it is 20 years. However, among the women, the disease starts at an earlier age of thirteen years.

References

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Elgharably, A., Gomaa, A. I., Crossey, M. M., Norsworthy, P. J., Waked, I., & Taylor-Robinson, S. D. (2017). Hepatitis C in Egypt–past, present, and future. International journal of general medicine, 10, 1.

Talaat, M., Afifi, S., Reaves, E. J., Elwood, H. A., El-Gohary, A., Refaey, S., … & Kandeel, A. (2019). Evidence of sustained reductions in the relative risk of acute hepatitis B and C virus infections, and the increasing burden of hepatitis a virus infection in Egypt: comparison of sentinel acute viral hepatitis surveillance results, 2001–17. BMC infectious diseases, 19(1), 159.Evidence of sustained reductions in the relative risk of acute hepatitis B and C virus infections, and the increasing burden of hepatitis a virus infection in Egypt: comparison of sentinel acute viral hepatitis surveillance results, 2001–17. BMC infectious diseases, 19(1), 159.

Zampino, R., Coppola, N., Sagnelli, C., Di Caprio, G., & Sagnelli, E. (2015). Hepatitis C virus infection and prisoners: epidemiology, outcome and treatment. World journal of hepatology, 7(21), 2323.

Mohamoud, Y. A., Mumtaz, G. R., Riome, S., Miller, D., & Abu-Raddad, L. J. (2013). The epidemiology of hepatitis C virus in Egypt: a systematic review and data synthesis. BMC infectious diseases, 13(1), 288.

Mohamoud, Y., Mumtaz, G., & Abu-Raddad, L. (2012). The epidemiology of hepatitis C virus in Egypt: a systematic review. International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 16, e98-e99.

Mostafa, A., Taylor, S. M., El‐Daly, M., El Hoseiny, M., Bakr, I., Arafa, N., … & Mohamed, M. K. (2010). Is the hepatitis C virus epidemic over in Egypt? Incidence and risk factors of new hepatitis C virus infections. Liver International, 30(4), 560-566.

Kouyoumjian, S. P., Chemaitelly, H., & Abu-Raddad, L. J. (2018). Characterizing hepatitis C virus epidemiology in Egypt: systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and meta-regressions. Scientific reports, 8(1), 1661.