Incidence of Chronic Hepatitis B and C Virus Infection in Damietta, Egypt

Abstract

We investigated the incidence of Hepatitis B (HBV) and Hepatitis C (HCV) virus infection among patients with liver disease in Damietta Egypt from 2003 to 2005. Of the 146 liver patients studied, 25.3% had HCV and 8.9% had HBV. The incidence of HBV and HCV infection was greater in males than females, especially for HCV. There was a sharp increase in the number of cases of HCV in liver patients in 2005 compared with 2003 (2.2-fold higher in men and 2.3-fold higher in women). Over the years, the rate of HBV and HCV infection was higher in male than female patients (69.2 % versus 30.7% for HBV and 67.5% versus 32.4 % for HCV Alanine Amino-Transferase (ALT) α -glutathione-s- transferase were used a biomarker of Hepatocellular damage. IgG anti-HCV is related to the elevation of ALT levels and can be used as a serologic marker to indicate the presence of active HCV induced liver damage.