Epidemiology of hepatitis C in Iran and the world

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection creates a significant burden to health care system. The epidemiological characteristics and risk factors for transmission vary across countries. A literature review of published scientific reports on HCV epidemiology in Iran and summarize of findings of some countries was performed. Prevalence of hepatitis C in Iran ranges from 0.5% to 0.97% in blood donors, 19.3% in patients with thalassemia, 19.6% in patients on maintenance hemodialysis, 31.5% of drug abuser inmates in a prison of Hamadan, 45.4% of inmates and 88.9% of intravenous drug abusers of a prison in Guilan were HCV antibody positive. The risk of infection related to injection drug use and health care serving are the most important for still growing number of infected persons. Expansion of harm-reducing interventions for drug users, and educating preventive programs in targeted high-risk behaviors populations will improve infection spread in our country. Design appropriate public health strategies by involvement of regional health agencies for education, supervising addiction control and establish policies for the appropriate use of injections, sterile principles in healthcare-related procedures, and improvement in blood transfusion safety in countries with high drug trafficking and insufficient health and social resources is needed. Control of HCV transmission requires continuous monitoring, surveillance and prevention.