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Hepatitis C Case Study

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Introduction and rationale

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a worldwide problem. Globally, it was estimated that in 2005, more than 185 million people had hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies (prevalence of 2.8 percent) 1. The condition has been worsened in Egypt as it has the highest HCV prevalence in the world 2. Egyptian Health issues Survey (EHIS) in 2015 estimated a prevalence of 10 % for sampled population 26.172 had positive antibodies to HCV, however only 7 % were found to have HCV RNA 3. HCV also represents an economic burden in Egypt which will continue over the next decade 4.
As far as 2011, the combination of pegylated interferon and ribavirin for 48 weeks was the effective treatment for chronic hepatitis C, but Several HCV …show more content…

Accordingly, the European association for study of liver diseases (EASL) recommended Hepatitis C core antigen as alternative to HCV RNA in diagnosis of acute and chronic HCV infection.
Emergence of New DAAs represents a new challenge and a relief of economic burden in developing countries especially Egypt that has high prevalence of HCV infection. According to Egyptian National Virological Campaign protocol for treatment of HCV infection in May 2016, Repeated HCV RNA assays are needed for follow up of patients during and after antiviral therapy which are so expensive. A growing need to look for a cheap and reliable tool for monitoring of the efficacy of DAAs highlights the role of Hepatitis C core Ag assay as an alternative to HCV RNA assays.
A meta-analysis reported many studies that stated the accuracy of diagnosis for five HCV core antigen tests with different qualities and techniques that need sometime specific analyzers with closed system and relatively expensive 8. Thus, the main objective of this study is to evaluate a new Hepatitis C core Ag by ELISA in assessment of sustained virological response (SVR 12) after antiviral therapy in comparison to HCV RNA assay. This ELISA test is relatively cheap and doesn’t need specific analyzers like other HCV core antigen tests which not available in many laboratories in Egypt.

Aim of the work
To improve the health care provided for chronic hepatitis C patients and cost reduction of the

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