TY - JOUR AU - Okoh, Ameh. M AU - Aremu, Olatunji AU - Suleiman, Ismail A PY - 2022/08/31 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Prevalence And Knowledge Of Hepatitis C Virus Infection Among Residents In Otukpo Town, Benue State, North Central Nigeria JF - Journal of Current Biomedical Research JA - jcbr VL - 2 IS - 4, July-August SE - Articles DO - 10.54117/jcbr.v2i4.2 UR - https://journals.unizik.edu.ng/jcbr/article/view/1136 SP - 255-269 AB - <p style="font-weight: 400;">Hepatitis C virus infection is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Within the last decade, its sero-prevalence has been reported to be more than 170 million infections worldwide.  The study determined the sero-prevalence and knowledge of Hepatitis C Virus infection in Otukpo, Benue State, North Central Nigeria</p><p style="font-weight: 400;">A descriptive cross-sectional survey of the residents in Otukpo was carried out with the aid of pretested semi structured questionnaire. Consented respondents were also screened for Hepatitis C infection using the Anti-HCV rapid test strip. The associations between relevant variables were also determined. Hepatitis sero-prevalence rate within the study population was 2.8%. Most of the respondents that participated in the study were within the age bracket of 25 – 44 years 195 (51.6%). About fifty eight percent 226 (57.7%) were females and most of the respondents had formal education. Knowledge and awareness of Hepatitis C was poor. Only one third of the respondents had appreciable knowledge of Hepatitis C. Significant statistical association occurred only between gender (male and female) Hepatitis C outcome. The study showed Hepatitis C sero-prevalence rate was relatively high in the studied population. Their knowledge and practices to avoid Hepatitis C virus were also discovered to be very low.</p> ER -