The prevalence of Reported Cases of Hepatitis C Virus Infection with associated co-morbidities in MOH hospitals and centers, among people living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jan 2016-Jun 2019: analytic cross-sectional study design
HCV is considered as one of the major global threat. WHO started a strategy to eliminate HCV by 2030. Although KSA had low to moderate HCV prevalence, compared to other MENA region but still HCV cause burden on community and health systems. So KSA one of the countries that started to act on strategies to eliminate the disease by 2030. This study aims to estimate HCV prevalence over all the Kingdome 20 health regions from 2016 to 2019 and to investigate and analyze the comorbidities associated with HCV including (Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, Anemia, HBV, HIV, CKD, and CHD). Therefore, this will help in identifying all reported cases as well it can be used as a baseline to compare the prevalence in the next years.
Methodology
Analytic cross-sectional study design based on Retrospective analysis of report-based data from HESN (health electronic surveillance network ) for demographic data that include ( Age, Sex, Nationality, Region) for the period from January 2016 to March 2017, and from Saned (Another health electronic surveillance network) for demographic data and Associated comorbidities for the period from April 2017 to June 2019. Those two surveillance networks are connected to the general directorate of infectious disease control database, which includes all confirmed HCV infection cases which reported from the 20 health regions to the ministry of health hepatitis national program during the period from 2016 to June 2019.
Results
Total of 5046 HCV positive cases were reported from all health regions in KSA from the period of Jan 2016 to Jun 2019. 59% are male, 81% are Saudi, 23.4% were from 50-59 years old. In general, the prevalence of HCV increasing from 2016 to 2018 and then decreasing in 2019, the high prevalence was almost found in Hassa and Makkah regions. The most prevalence rate of comorbidities was Hypertension, followed by diabetes and chronic kidney disease. Hassa region has the highest prevalence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus while Qurayat has the highest prevalence of chronic kidney disease
Conclusion
The HCV infection in KSA showed different distribution among sex, nationality, age groups, and regions. The prevalence rate was increasing in the last years in different regions, and this was expected because the ministry of health enhanced the screening in term of eliminating the disease. Hypertension, Diabetes mellitus, and chronic kidney disease should be anticipated in a patient with HCV, screening for these comorbidities in HCV patient in early stages will improve overall morbidities and mortality.