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Hepatitis' C virus infection in urban and rural NatallKwaZulu
Abstract
This study was undertaken to estimate the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in urban and rural blacks in NataUKwaZulu. Sera from representative community-based samples comprising 176 urban and 441 rural black adults were tested for the presence of anti-HCV. The prevalence of HCV infection was 1,7% (95% confidence interval 0 - 3,6%) among urban and 0,9% (95% confidence interval 0,1 - 1,7% ) among rural blacks. Four (0,9%) of the 466 subjects with evidence of current or past hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and 3 (2%) of the 151 with no evidence of HBV infection were anti-HCV-positive. The prevalence of HCV infection was low in contrast to the high prevalence of HBV infection among urban and rural blacks in Natal KwaZulu. This suggests that HCV does not have the same main routes of transmission as HBV in this region. Larger scale studies are needed to explore this hypothesis.
