Epidemiological Study of Viral Hepatitis (Icteric and Anicteric) in the Industrial Population of Karachi

Abstract

Introduction All types of liver disease including liver cancer are not infrequent in Pakistan but only a few systematic studies are available on these problems. Autoimmune liver disease is rare and pattern of liver disease which emerges from the available date indicates that hepatitis virus is the most likely etiological factor in liver disease in Pakistan. There are three or more types of hepatitis viruses but the biochemical and antigenic characteristic of only two viruses are same. Hepatitis caused by virus A has a short incubation period, occurs in epidemics mainly in children and also in other age groups Ninety-five percent of patient recover from the disease. Serodiagnosis of this types if disease is not yet ready available and the spread of disease occurs via oro-faecal route. Hepatitis B has a long incubation period, occurs sporadically all the years round, affects mainly young males, spread of the infecting virus occurs via oro-oral, sexual and parental routes. Serological tests for diagnosis are readily available. This type of hepatitis progress to chronic liver disease and liver cancer. The nature virus causing long incubation period Non A non B variety of hepatitis is not known. In Pakistan hepatitis A appears to be more common but serological date to confirm this impression is not yet available. Approximately 40% of patients suffer from type B variety and this percentage would have been higher if more sensitive screening test were used. As the attempts to obtains sufficient clinical material from the industrial population were not successful, the studies were not done on the hospital population.