EFFECT OF STANDARD INTERFERON AND RIBAVIRIN ON LEUKOCYTECOUNT

Background: chronic hepatitis c is a public health problems in pakistan,with 4.5% population infected. it is amenable to antiviral treatment. the ojective of this study was to determine the effect of antiviral treatment on leukocytes count during the treatment of hepatitis c.methods: in this descriptive case series sixty pcr positive hepatitis c patients were included and were given standard interferon and ribavirin for a period of six months with a monthly follow up. total leukocytes were measured at monthly interval to study change in their counts.results: the mean of baseline leukocytes was compared with the average mean leukocytes of six months treatment,and a decrease of 1603.36/mm3 was observed (p=0.000).conclusion: six months treatment of chronic hepatitis c with standard interferon and ribavirin decreases leukocytes count to a significant level.