الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
When older individuals get infected with HCV, they typically have a minor hepatic illness that is asymptomatic, and they are not being referred for examination. This worsens the issue, making the liver disease more severe when it is initially detected. At the time of the initial diagnosis, most patients had developed liver cirrhosis and/or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
In various parts of the world, the prevalence of HCV infection in older individuals varies. Although a previous Egyptian study claimed that the highest prevalence rates of Hepatitis c were detected between the ages of 55 and 65 years, the present prevalence, and features of HCV infection in the elderly have not been fully documented.
Over the last decades, A lot of effort has been in Egypt to limit the spread of the virus. The National Committee for the Control of Viral Hepatitis established a National Control Method for Viral Hepatitis in 2008 and launched several preventive and treatment activities.
The outbreak of hepatitis C in Egypt is linked to large schistosomiasis treatment campaigns between 1960 and 1984, when 3–5 million persons over the age of six received intravenous injections of antimony salts. Inadequate sterilizing of syringes and needles was thought to be the source of HCV transmission. Because HCV-infected people can live for more than 30 years, many infected patients from that time are still living today.
The main aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HCV and associated risk factors as well as comorbidities with HCV in the elderly Egyptian patients (above 60 years).
This was a cross-sectional observational study was conducted, including 80 subjects with HCV (males &females), their ages equal or more than 60 years and were recruited from the liver center at Alexandria’s El-Qabbary Hospital. The duration of the study lasted from 6-12 months.
The main results of the study revealed that:
• Age in the studied group ranged from 60-87 years with a mean value of 73.86±7.996 years while in the control group it ranged from 60-84 years with a mean value 72.28±7.402 years with no significant differences between groups. In the studied group male cases were 38(47.5%) while female cases were 42(52.5%) while in the control group male cases were 39(48.8%) while female cases were 41(51.2%) with no significant differences between groups. Duration of disease ranged from 13-22 years with a mean value 17.09±2.532 years.
• HCV RNA Quantitative PCR ranged from 0.02-75.78 with a mean value 13.312±22.289. Patients had positive HCV antibody.
• Hb in the studied group ranged between 8.9 – 13.0 gm/dl with a mean value of 10.839±1.125 while in the control group it ranged between 12.0 – 15.0 gm/dl with a mean value of 13.40±0.913. Platelet in the studied group ranged between 103 – 446 with a mean value of 210.95±77.072 while in the control group it ranged between 198 – 337 with a mean value of 266.09±41.563.
• WBCs in the studied group ranged between 2.90 – 19.20 with a mean value of 7.649±3.957 while in the control group it ranged between 4.50 – 11.90 with a mean value of 8.14±2.045. There were significant decreasing differences between the two groups according to CBC.