Epidemiological, Clinical and Virological Characteristics of Patients with Hepatitis C in Morocco

Abstract

Objectives: In Morocco, the exact and recent prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection is not wellknown due to the lack of recent epidemiological studies of the general Moroccan population. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of HCV and to describe the epidemiological, clinical and virological characteristics of patients infected with HCV diagnosed at the Mohammed V Military Teaching Hospital in Rabat, Morocco. Methods: This was a prospective study, spread over a period of 3 years (April 2015 - April 2018). All patients with a positive anti-HCV serology were included in the study except those on hemodialysis. In addition to HCV serology, all patients included were tested with HIV serology as well as the Hbs antigen by a Chemiluminescent type Microparticle Immunoassay technique (Architect®, Abbott). RNA viral load and HCV genotyping were carried out using a real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: We collected 14,944 samples, of which 269 had positive anti-HCV antibodies (1.8%). The average age of patients with positive anti-HCV serology was 61 years, the sex ratio (Male/Female) was 1:4. Dental care was identified as the most common risk factor, (53% of the cases). Viral hepatitis C was identified in 82% of cases during a systematic check up. The main clinical signs reported in our series were asthenia (25% of cases) and subicterus (7% of cases). Conclusion and Implications for Translation: In Morocco, the exact prevalence of HCV infection is not well known, due to the lack of recent epidemiological studies of the general Moroccan population. Our study showed a prevalence of about 1.8%, which is in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) estimation of between 1% and 2.49%.Our epidemiological study provides important information on the extent of the problem in Morocco, raises the interest in mass screening, and describes the populations at risk that will need to be identified as a priority.