Pakistan Medical Research Council

National Survey on Prevalence of Hepatitis B & C in General Population of Pakistan

PMRC planned a countrywide survey to get the actual prevalence of hepatitis B and C, because presently the reported prevalence is based mostly on hospital or clinic based studies, which has shown varying prevalence from province to province with highest figures presumed to be from Balochistan and Sindh.

Accordingly, a PC-II was prepared and approved by the Ministry of Health. About 7500 houses, having 47,043 households of all ages and genders in 350 PSUs have been screened for the prevalence of hepatitis B and C. The survey was started in July 2007 and has been completed in June 2008.

The HBs Ag  was positive in 2.5% and anti HCV in 4.9%. Hence, overall positivity for both HBs Ag and HCV is 7.4%. The data indicate that almost 12 million people are positive for these viruses.Final results will be available in 2 months.