Investigation on hepatitis C virus infection among high school students aged over 16 years in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Objective To understand the status of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and its related factors among high school students aged over 16 years in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and to provide scientific theoretical basis for the prevention and control of hepatitis C. Methods By using stratified random sampling method, 2 632 high school students aged over 16 years from Yulin, Nanning, Baise, Guilin and Liuzhou were taken 5ml of blood each and anti-HCV were detected by enzyme-linked immune absorbent assay (ELISA). Epidemic characteristics of HCV infection was analyzed by descriptive epidemiological and risk factors were studied by single factor and multi factor Logistic regression. Results The total positive rate of anti-HCV was 0.84% among 2 632 high school students. The anti -HCV positive rates were 0.73% (6/823) for male and 0.89% for female (16/1 800). The prevalence rate of anti-HCV in the eastern(Yulin), western(Baise), middle(Liuzhou), northern(Guilin) and southern(Nanning) areas were 1.03% (9/877), 0.66% (3/457), 1.28%(3/234), 0.79% (4/509) and 0.54%(3/555) respectively. The prevalence rates of anti-HCV for the gender and five areas did not show significant difference(all P>0.05). Single factor and multi factors analysis showed that the common toothbrush (OR=3.078, 95% CI: 1.174-48.074, P=0.022) and history of endoscopy(OR=4.182, 95% CI:1.328-13.170, P=0.015)were high risk factors for HCV. Conclusions HCV infection is an important public health problem among high school students in Guangxi. Students should reinforce self-protect and refuse to share toothbrush with others. It would also be necessary to strengthen the disinfection of medical equipment. At the same time, strengthening health education and health promotion is the effective measure for prevention and control of hepatitis C.