Prevalence of Hepas-C Viral Infecon among Opioid Dependent Injectable Drug Users: A Study Conducted at Swami Vivekananda Drug De-Addicon and Treatment Centre, Amritsar Piyush Mahajan*, Manjit Singh, Aseem Garg, Parshotam Dass Garg and Gurpreet Singh Government Medical College, Amritsar, Punjab, India *Corresponding author: Piyush Mahajan, Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College, Amritsar, Punjab, India, Tel: 919888689299; E- mail: mhajns@gmail.com Received date: January 18, 2016; Accepted date: March 07, 2016; Published date: March 11, 2016 Citaon: Mahajan P*, Manjit Singh, Garg A, Garg PD and Gurpreet Singh (2016) Prevalence of Hepas-C Viral Infecon among Opioid Dependent Injectable Drug Users: A Study Conducted at Swami Vivekananda Drug De-Addicon and Treatment Centre, Amritsar. Dual Diagn Open Acc 1:26. doi: 10.21767/2472-5048.100006 Copyright: © 2016, Mahajan, et al. This is an open-access arcle distributed under the terms of the Creave Commons Aribuon License, which permits unrestricted use, distribuon, and reproducon in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Background: Injecng drug use is a major route of hepas C virus (HCV) infecon in north India especially Punjab with very high rates of substance abuse. The present study was aempted to study the prevalence of hepas C among the injectable drug users, which is more important in a country like India where viral hepas is esmated to be among the top ten causes of deaths. Methods and findings: A study was conducted in 2014-2015(FEB-FEB).The subjects included were 1162 IDUs who were opioid dependent as diagnosed by ICD-10 and confirmed for opioid in urine with help of Instant-View opiates (300) urine cassee test and IDU status was confirmed by observing injecon marks on body parts. Aſter that every paent was subjected to blood sampling for an HCV anbodies using immunoassay technique and opioid dependent IDUs posive for an HCV anbodies were interviewed regarding demographics, injecng and sexual behaviours. Seroprevalence of HCV was found to be 38.12 % (443 posives). Out of 443 posives about 98.6% were males, 63% were of rural background, 60% were married and 43% unemployed. Majority was between the age group of 25-30 years age (58%). Conclusion: Our study shows a high seroprevalence of HCV in IDUs. The study helps us to evaluate various aspects associated with Hepas C infecon in Punjab. The need of the hour is to increase awareness about HCV among the public and praccing physicians. Keywords: Hepas-C; Viral infecon; Opioid dependent; Drug de-addicon Introducon It is esmated that 170 million people worldwide are infected with the hepas C virus (HCV). HCV is a single stranded RNA flavivirus, originally idenfied in 1989 as the major cause of non- A and non-B hepas [1]. Although only a small proporon of acute HCV infecons are symptomac, HCV progresses to chronic infecon in approximately 80% of cases and is an important cause of chronic liver disease worldwide [2,3]. Approximately 15 to 20% of persons who acquire HCV infecon progress to potenally serious cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease [4]. HCV is transmied most effecvely through parenteral exposures to infected blood. Prior to the virus’ discovery, transfusion of blood or blood products was a major mode of transmission. Since tesng of blood supplies began, new cases of transfusion-transmied hepas C has been virtually eliminated. Sexual transmission of HCV appears to be inefficient as most sexual risk behaviours have not been shown to be associated with HCV infecon [5]. Nosocomial transmission of HCV is possible if infecon control measures are inadequate, such as the use of mul dose vials, dialysis, and colonoscopy [6]. HCV is readily transmied through micro transfusions of infected blood through the shared use of syringes and other injecon paraphernalia used to inject illicit drugs. Currently, the major mode of HCV transmission worldwide is injecon drug use [5,6]. Injecon risk behaviours such as the mul-person use (sharing) of injecon equipment (i.e., needles/syringes, cookers, coon, rinse-water) can transmit HCV and potenally HIV and other blood-borne pathogens [3,7]. Injecon drug use is the main mode of transmission of HCV in developed countries, transmied through blood-to blood contact, either via direct or indirect sharing of injecng equipment [2]. In India, blood transfusions and unsafe therapeuc injecons were the predominant modalies of transmission of HCV. However, aſter HCV screening of blood products was made mandatory in India, injecon drug use is gradually becoming the major route of HCV infecon. Punjab is a state in the North West of the Republic of India. A decade ago Punjab was one of the wealthiest states. In 2004, it was ranked as the “second richest” state. Now, however, the success story of Punjab’s economy has seemingly come to an end. A drug epidemic has swept across the state, accompanying Research Article iMedPub Journals http://www.imedpub.com/ DOI: 10.21767/2472-5048.100006 Dual Diagnosis: Open Access ISSN 2472-5048 Vol.1 No.2:6 2016 © Under License of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License | This article is available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.21767/2472-5048.100006 1