Original article
English
R B M Roaeid 1, A S M Giasuddin 2, A A Shakmak 3, S M Qurashi 3 and M Saefan 3
1-Department of medicine, 7thOctober Teaching hospital and Benghazi Diabetes Centre 2- Professor of Laboratory Medicine, University of Derna, Libya 3- Laboratory Department, 7thOctober Teaching hospital, Benghazi, Libya
Diabetes International Vol. 12, No 1, March 2002
Abstract
The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among Libyan diabetics. Sera from 228 Libyan diabetic patients were screened f or HCV infection. None had overt chronic liver disease. Twenty-four patients (10.5%) were found to positive, significantly higher than the 2% rate among healthy blood donors (p <0.001). Among 52 type 1 patients, 9 (17%) were seropositive, while out of 176 type 2 patients, 15 (8%) were seropositive. Elevated transaminases were present in only 40% of seropositive parients. These results showed a relatively high prevalence of HCV infection among Libyan diabetic patients. Keywords: Hepatitis virus (HCV), seropositivity, and diabetes in Benghazi, Libya Link/DOI: