Muhammad Umar et al. 207 Table 3. Sero-prevalence of HCV in Blood Donors. Author Kakepoto et al. Bhatti et al. Lone et al. Mujeeb Tanwani & Ahmad DBTU PBTS Adridi Ryas et al. Ahmed et al. Ahmad et al. Khattak et al. Fayyaz et al. Mumtaz et al. Rahman et al. Ali et al. Akhtar et al. Ahmad et al. Mahmood et al. Sirhindi Aziz Khan Ujjan et al. Mujeeb et al. Chaudhary Alam & Naeem Ishaq et al. Bhatti et al. Khattak et al. Mujeeb & Pearce Year 1996 1996 1999 2000 2000 2001 UP 2001 UP 2001 UP 2001 2001 2002 2002 2002 2002 2002 2003 2004 2004 2004 2006 2006 2006 2006 2006 2007 2007 2007 2007 2008 2008 Total Place Karachi Rawalpindi Lahore Karachi Islamabad Rawalpindi Lahore Peshawar Rawalpindi Karachi Lahore Rawalpindi Bahawalpur Rawalpindi Lahore Quetta Karachi Peshawar Multan Lahore Skardu Bahawalpur Hyderabad Karachi Rawalpindi Gilgit Thatta Karachi Peshawar Karachi Number 16,705 760 186 612 1,345 20,500 120,000 19,000 1,885 1,410 5,789 103,858 345 553 166,183 1635 351,309 4,000 6,000 18,216 850 27,938 3,677 7,325 1,428 8.949 310 94,177 1,131 5,345 982,481 Anti HCV (%) Reference 1.2 (103) 4.8 (104) 4.3 (105) 0.5 (106) 12.5 (32) 5.0 (99) 2.3 (99) 4.0 (99) 4.7 (107) 4.4 (108) 4.9 (109) 4.0 (110) 5.6 (33) 6.2 (34) 4.4 (111) 1.8 (112) 1.8 (113) 2.2 (114) 0.3 (31) 4.2 (115) 1.1 (116) 2.5 (117) 6.7 (35) 3.6 (118) 2.5 (119) 1.3 (120) 1.3 (121) 4.2 (122) 4.1 (123) 7.5 (124) 3.03 (95% CI: 3.0- 3.1) an overall prevalence of 44.9% (95% CI = 42.6 – 47.2). Eleven studies (39, 51-59, 69) covering 3,144 patients with chronic liver disease showed a range of 13.3% to 86.0% HCV serofrequency. The mean frequency was 52.9% (95% CI: 51.1-54.7). In 10 studies (36, 39, 40, 42, 60-65) The HCV serofrequency in 739 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma was investigated (Table 5), and it ranged from 24% to 67.9%. The mean frequency in this subgroup was 50.6% (95% CI : 46.9–54.3). One thousand nine hundred and eighty patients with acute/chronic hepatitis from 6 studies had 58.2% (95% CI : 55.7– 60.4) HCV serofrequency (46, 51, 57, 66-68). Patients with Diseases Other than Hepatic Diseases Sixteen studies focused on HCV serofrequency in patients with various diseases other than liver diseases (Table 6) (10, 70-85). These studies spanned a period of 8 years, from 1999 to 2006, and covered major cities. The mean frequency of HCV infection in patients with various medical diseases was 20.4% (95% CI : 18.4-22.5), 38% in haematological diseases (95% CI : 33.6-42.5), 7.9% among surgical diseases (95% CI : 6.9 – 9.0), and 1.3% in dental diseases. Pregnant Women Eleven studies (86-96) dealing with the serofrequency of HCV among pregnant women were found (Table 7). These studies spanned a period of 13 years from 1996 to 2008 and covered 6,148 women. The frequency in this group ranged from 3.3% to 29.1%. Overall serofrequency in this group was 7.3% (95% CI = 6.7 – 8.0). Children Data from four studies (18, 86, 97, 98) covering 4,472 healthy children were analyzed (Table 8). HCV serofrequency among children ranged from 0.4% to Hepatitis Monthly, Summer 2010; 10(3): 205-214