A Review of Hepatitis C Virus: Prevalence, Genotype, Risk Factors in Pakistan Last Quarter of Century

Hepatitis C virus has infected over 200 million people worldwide and is the most common blood-borne disease. Pakistan has the HCV prevalence rate of over 8%. A literature search has been performed using different keywords in different databases i.e. PubMed, Google Scholar, and NCBI. 6.2% prevalence rate was found in the general population, 4.13% in healthcare workers and a higher prevalence rate was observed in injection drug users and multi transfusion population. Use of injection was very frequent among the Pakistani population, reuse and sharing of syringes have an association with HCV infections. In Pakistan most prevalent genotype of HIV was 3a. Knowledge about HCV and its risk factors also varies with the educational background. Blood donors should be screened for HCV, awareness campaigns about different risk factors should be initiated at the government level, and strict regulation on healthcare waste should be implemented, these might help in preventing its spread to healthy individuals.