Sci.Int.(Lahore),26(1),459-461,2014 ISSN 1013-5316; CODEN: SINTE 8 459 HEPATITIS PREVALENCE AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN OF WAH CANT. A CASE STUDY OF AL-MOEED HOSPITAL Muhammad Khurum Irshad 1 , Dr. Abid Ghafoor Chaudhry 2 , Aftab Ahmed 3 Anthropologist, Association for Social Development, Islamabad, 2 Incharge, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, 3 Anthropologist, Association for Social Development, Islamabad Corresponding Author: huda.aftab@gmail.com ABSTRACT : In the scenario of developing countries, Hepatitis is a well known and continuously spreading disease. In Pakistan the situation is also not satisfactory. Government and private sector striving to control this dangerous disease but graph is still going up. Pakistani pregnant women are facing this disease with the high risk and a major reason to transmit the virus to their fetus. This study is focused to address the prevalence of deadly hepatitis B and C among pregnant women of Wah cant. As primary source of information secondary data was used to explore the topic of interest. There for one year record of Hepatitis B+/C+ registered pregnant women (n=116) was collected from health staff by getting permission from the authorities of Al-Moeed Hospital, Wah Cant. Taxila. Data was entered in SPSS and also analyzed by using the same application. Findings of the study show that the ratio of hepatitis B and C is increasing in Pakistan especially among pregnant women. The reason is that the pregnant women are most vulnerable for this kind of viral diseases. Results of the study shows that 64.66% of women are hepatitis B positive and 35.34% women are infected with hepatitis C. Majority of the infected pregnant women lives in rural area and but 39.65% women of urban area is also infected with this disease. The prevalence of hepatitis is getting higher day by day among pregnant women and also among common people in Pakistan. Identified causes of prevalence of this deadly disease e.g. poor hygiene, water and sanitation issues and there is also lack of awareness among people especially rural population of the country. Keywords: Hepatitis, Pregnant women, Prevalence, Hygiene INTRODUCTION Hepatitis with all its definitions and types is a universal issue and as reported by WHO 12-15 million people are infected each year. In Pakistan the situation is quite similar with rest of the other countries. Among the types of hepatitis viruses, hepatitis B and C are those viruses who required wide- ranging studies to cover the area to control the disease. Many researchers carried out in a variety of groups in different health facilities have reported variable results concerning prevalence of hepatitis B and C. Most recently, Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC) had arranged a national survey to target and record the prevalence of hepatitis B and C in common population of Pakistan both living in urban or rural areas. The opening reports disclose that HBsAg is positive in 2.5% and Anti-HCV in 4.9%. Thus overall positivity for both these viruses is 7.4%. According to this survey a bigger set as about 12 million population of Pakistan is affected by these viruses [1]. Up to the latest knowledge and researchers till now 8 breeds of viral hepatitis have been discovered which includes A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. Most common among all these is Hepatitis C, caused by the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). Hepatitis C is blood born disease gradually develops in the body of victim which critically affects the liver cells and craft a lot of medical complications. In all countries, especially in Pakistan, it was calculated that about 3% of the all population of the world has been contaminated by HCV and about 170 million are chronic carriers of this brutal disease [2, 3]. If we discussed the situation in Pakistan the prevalence of HCV is 4-6% [4] while a community based study in District Hafizabad; Punjab exposed the figure of prevalence is 6.5% [5]. In another study at prevalence of Hepatitis C was found to be 5-8% [6]. Only in Europe four million carriers were reported [7]. Early epidemiological studies exposed that both these viruses’ (hepatitis B and C) are mainly transmit to the next generation through parental means. The transmission (mother to her child) threat of these viruses getting higher among those persons who are given un-sterilized therapeutic injections, use of infected needles among IV drug abusers, contaminated blood transfusion, having unsafe sex relationships’, sharing toothbrushes, shaving instruments, infected combs, self infliction as a part of religious activity (maatam) with infected chains and persons who have their faces or armpits shaved by street barbers [8, 9]. It was observed that patients with history of hospitalization or those who have received multiple injections are at high risk to prevail the disease as compared to the patients get less hospitalized in their life [10]. Current study was focused to explore prevalence of Hepatitis among pregnant women in Wah cant with especial reference to their localities and age distribution of disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was based on secondary data taken from a private health facility “Al-Moeed Hospital” in Wah Cant. The targeted population of study was all those pregnant women coming for their routine antenatal visit at health facility in last one year. The sample size was 116; consisting only hepatitis B and C positive pregnant women. Respondents belong to both urban and rural areas of the surroundings. Data is based on registered patients’ record within the time period of one year from January 2013 to December 2013. The data, for this study purpose is used with the consent of