A silent killer HCV (Hepatitis C virus) in India: A Review of prevalence from all available data

This article reviews the prevalence of and factors associated with HCV infection in Indian population. Total 109 different studies were included in this study. Literature search was done by using keywords ‘hepatitis C virus prevalence in India’, ‘HCV and India’, ‘hepatitis and India’ through electronic databases like Pubmed, Google Scholar. Blood donors constituted the largest data of 15,61,371 individuals. The frequency was highest in injecting drug users i.e. 51.22 % (95% CI: 50.80 – 51.64). The frequency in multitransfused thalassemics and haemophiliac cases was 22.78 % (95% CI: 22.00– 23.55) and 14.38 %( 95% CI: 13.21 – 15.55) respectively. The frequency in pregnant women was 1.07% (95% CI: 0.983 - 1.017). The frequency due to sexual transmission and haemodialyis was 5.82% (95% CI: 5.646 - 5.994) and 4.73% (95% CI: 4.33 – 5.13) respectively. The serofrequency in communities and hospital –based population was 8.03% (95% CI: 7.75 – 8.30) and 0.45% (95% CI : 0.43 – 0.47) respectively. The frequency in liver disease patients was 19.71 (95% CI: 19.24 – 20.18).This study reviewed HCV seroprevalence among different groups from India which would help to identify high prevalence areas and to introduce the most effective measures to prevent its further transmission and the necessary awareness of this silent epidemic.