Introduction
Since Muharram 1429, premarital screening program of all the marrying couples, included mandatory testing for HBV &HCV in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a heavy financial burden posed on the government to provide appropriate treatment and medical care for HBV&HCV cases, health education to increase public awareness is important prevention measure which needs such study to explore risk factors of transmission of these diseases in our culture.
Methodology
A case-control study to identify risk factors responsible for infection transmission (n = 739), data collected from the 5 regions with the highest reported cases namely Riyadh, Jeddah, Asser, Taif and Eastern Province. In four months duration.
Results
The study shows that all the important risk factors for HBV&HCV transmission are present, the most significant being accidental injury in health facility, marital status before screening, sharing razors, nail cutters, tooth brush, acne puncturing, cuts at barbershops, blood transfusions, people who were married previously, or were in contact with an infected person showed the highest significant associations with the transmission of these viruses.
Conclusion
Factors which showed statistically significant positive association with occurrence of HBV and HCV in study population included accidental injury in health facility, sharing razors, nail cutters, tooth brush, acne puncturing and cuts at barbershops, blood transfusions, people who were married previously or had contact with an infected person.