DRUG ADDICTION AND HEPATITIS B AND C IN PAKISTAN

Pakistan carries one of the world’s highest burdens of drug abuse and mortality due to hepatitis B C in correlation with drug addiction. However, currently on national level there is no approximation of risk factors for hepatitis B C associated with drug addiction. We reviewed the medical and public health literature over a 6 months period (March to September 2012) to estimate the prevalence of hepatitis B C in Pakistan in association with drug addiction. The published literature on modes of transmission implicated unsterilized medical injections, barbering at roads, drug abuse, sexual behaviors, injection abuser groups and unsafe blood and blood products transfusion as major causes for having hepatitis in Pakistan. Injection drug users are at an augmented risk of infection and risk is increasing exponentially