Seroprevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) antibody and HCV-related risk in injecting drug users in northern India: comparison with non-injecting drug users.

Aim: The current study was designed to study seroprevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) antibody in injecting drug users (IDUs) and non-injecting drug users (non-IDUs) with or without other HCV-related risk behaviour.

Materials And Methods: Serum of male inpatients of the three groups in a tertiary-care hospital in north India was screened for anti-HCV antibody by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for two years. The presence of risk behaviours or risk exposure (sharing needle or other drug-related paraphernalia, multiple sex partners, unprotected sex with commercial sex workers/strangers, and blood transfusion) was assessed with the risk questionnaire.