The Epidemiology of Hepatitis C

Abstract

Hepatitis C is a major disease with its significant percentage of epidemiology around the globe and the people of the world are somewhat ignorant on the nature and spread of the disease . The inhibiting factor to take a comprehensive study about the disease is its asymptomatic nature in its acute stages . A variety of social and cultural factors contribute to the prevalence of the disease . The factors for the transmission of the disease in the developed countries include injecting drug use , unsafe sex , transfusion of the blood that is unscreened for

br the diseases and the practices like tattooing and ear piercing . Repeated use of the contaminated syringes , surgical and dental procedures with the contaminated medical equipment , certain religious and cultural factors play a major role in the transmission of the disease . The percentage prevalence of the disease is more in the developed nations in comparison to the developing nations of the world . it is important to have knowledge on the nature and mode of the transmission of the disease as this plays an important role in the increasing prevalence of the disease . There is a direct relationship between the epidemiology of the disease and the socio-cultural factors Sociological and cultural factors contribute greatly to the transmission of the disease and a comprehensive study of these factors helps in controlling the transmission of the disease . The present discusses on the medical anthropological aspects of the nature and transmission of the disease and the influence of the social and cultural factors on the epidemiology of the disease

Thesis statement

With its increasing prevalence annually in both the developed and developing countries Hepatitis C is a health problem on a global scale Cultural factors of different regions highly influence the epidemiology of the disease . The prevalent culture in the developed countries such as using illicit drugs through contaminated needles and the unsafe sexual practices play an important role in the transmission of disease . The major factors in the developing countries that contribute to the transmission of the disease include using improperly sterilized needles transfusion of the blood that has infection of the disease and some of the different ethnic cultural practices of the regions ( HYPERLINK "http /www .ncbi .nlm .nih .gov /sites /entrez ?Db pubmed Cmd Search Term 22D ev 20A 22 5BAuthor 5D itool EntrezSystem2 .PEntrez .Pubmed .Pubmed_ResultsP anel .Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel .Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus " Dev A , HYPERLINK "http /www .ncbi .nlm .nih .gov /sites /entrez ?Db pubmed Cmd Search Term 22S undararajan 20V 22 5BAuthor 5D itool EntrezSystem2 .PEntrez .Pubmed .Pubmed _ResultsPanel .Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel .Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus " Sundararajan V , HYPERLINK "http /www .ncbi .nlm .nih .gov /sites /entrez ?Db pubmed Cmd Search Term 22S ievert 20W 22 5BAuthor 5D itool EntrezSystem2 .PEntrez .Pubmed .Pubmed_Resu ltsPanel .Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel .Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus " Sievert W 2004 . In many countries of Europe , according to the reports the major cause that is responsible for the spread of the disease is the transfusion of the contaminated blood in addition to some factors such as using contaminated medical equipment (G . La Torre et .a , 2003 . The...