Seroprevalence of hepatitis B and C Virus Infections among type 2 diabetic patients in a tertiary care diabetic centre in Dhaka City

Aims: This study was carried out to explore the prevalence of HBV and HCV infections among type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients and risk factors. This crosssectional study was conducted at BIRDEM General Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh between January 2012 and March 2013. Subjects and Methods: A total of 1024 type 2 diabetics were included. Wellstructured questionnaire was used to collect demographic profile and history of the study populations. Venous blood samples were collected to screen HBV, HCV infections and to estimate other biochemical tests. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS version 16.0. Descriptive analysis was performed and results expressed as means±SD and n (%). P <0.05 was considered significant. Results: Prevalence of HBV in type 2 diabetics was 3.0% (31/1024) and HCV was 0.48% (5/1024). Among all subjects, mean±SD of body mass index (BMI) was 24.9±3.8, fasting blood sugar mmol/L was 10.7±4.6, post prandial blood sugar mmol/L was 17.6±7.2, fasting cholesterol mg/dl was 198.5±81.3, haemoglobin gm/dl was 13.1±1.5, serum ALT IU/L was 40.5±36.0. Mean serum ALT was significantly higher among HBV-positive T2DM participants (57.7 IU/L) than HBV-negative participants (36.2 IU/L) (P=0.001). Conclusions: The seroprevalence of HBV was higher than that of HCV in T2DM patients. T2DM patients should take necessary preventive measures like prophylactic vaccination to reduce the risk of HBV infection and its consequences.