RISK OF HEPATITIS C IN FACTORY WORKERS AND THEIR RELATIVES

Introduction: Viral hepatitis is one of the major public health problems all over the world. HBV and HCV are both important causes of liver damage. B, C with a serious treat for progression to chronicity (chronic liver disease) and development of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The objective of this work was to document the frequency of viral hepatitis B and C in healthy people belonging to poor socioeconomic status with low literacy rate. Materials and methods: The factory workers / labourers with less than 10,000 / month salary and low literacy rate and their relatives with no history, signs or symptoms of past or present illness were screened for hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) by rapid device method. The respective seropositivity was determined in terms of %. Results: Results showed that 1.98% of the subjects were positive for HBV and 6.3% were positive for HCV, indicating that out of positive subjects for hepatitis, 76% were positive for hepatitis C versus 24% who were positive for hepatitis B, C. Conclusion: Seropositivity for Hepatitis C is more common than hepatitis B in apparently healthy subjects belonging to specific group under investigation.