Demographic Factors Influencing Hepatitis B infection towards Bad Prognosis in a Sample of Iraqi Patients

Abstract

Objective: This study was design to identify the predisposing factors affecting patients with hepatitis B towards chronic infection and bad prognosis such as chronic liver disease, liver cirrhosis and death. Patients & Methods: Data were collected from records of Digestive System and Liver Diseases Teaching Hospital in Baghdad about patients infected with HBV as well as basic demographic data, statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square test.Results: The infection rate was increased from 3% in 2001 to 35% in 2004 but the case-fatality rate was decreased from 40% in 2001 to 22% in 2004. The chronic liver disease recorded 72.5% and the liver cirrhosis recorded 5.5%.Conclusion: The early diagnosis of the disease and presence of medical professionals (gastroenterologists and hematologists) lead to minimize further bad prognosis which result in minimizing the deaths of patients in spite of increasing the rate of the disease in the few past years. Key words: HBV, chronic liver disease, liver cirrhosis, bad prognosis