Epidemiology of chronic hepatitis C infections at a tertiary care centre in Oman

Objectives: chronic hepatitis c (chc) is a leading cause of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc) worldwide. however,there is a lack of data regarding the epidemiology of chc in oman. this study aimed to describe the clinicopathological characteristics and outcomes of chc-infected patients at a tertiary care hospital in oman. methods: this retrospective descriptive hospital-based study included all chc-infected patients who presented to the sultan qaboos university hospital (squh) in muscat,oman,between january 2010 and december 2015. the baseline demographic,clinical,laboratory and radiological data of the patients were analysed. results: a total of 603 chc-infected patients were identified during the study period; of these,65.8% were male and the mean age was 44.8 ± 16.5 years. the main risk factors associated with chc infection were intravenous drug abuse (23.9%) and a history of blood transfusions (20.7%). the most prevalent virus genotypes were 1 and 3 (44.0% and 35.1%,respectively). upon initial presentation,33.0% of the cohort had liver cirrhosis; of these,48.7% had decompensated cirrhosis and 23.1% had hccs. liver transplantation was only performed for 7.5% of the cirrhosis patients,mostly as a curative treatment for hcc. conclusion: the implementation of national policies to prevent hepatitis c transmission and encourage the early screening of at-risk patients is recommended to reduce the burden and consequences of this disease in oman. © 2017,sultan qaboos university. all rights reserved.