Frequency of acute hepatitis C after needle stick injury and its treatment outcome.

TLDR: Acute HCV is an uncommon disease to diagnose; it has favorable response to therapy if initiated early after a strict surveillance of patients for 8-16 weeks.

Abstract: Objective: To determine the frequency of acute HCV infection after needle stick injury and its treatment outcome. Methodology: Patients with HCV positive needle stick injury and reporting within 72 hours of incident were selected. Co-infections with HBV, HDV, HIV, hematological disorders and depression were excluded. Anti-HCV was done at presentation and those testing positive were excluded. HCV RNA was done after two weeks or anti-HCV after six weeks of incident. Those testing positive were kept under observation for 16 weeks for spontaneous resolution. After this period HCV RNA and Genotype were done and therapy with Peg-interferon was started. Rapid, early and sustained virological responses were checked. Results: Two hundred eight patients with HCV positive needle stick injury were selected, 10 (4.8%) developed acute HCV infection out of them one (10%) had spontaneous recovery during the observation period of 16 weeks. seven (77.8%) achieved rapid virological response and eight (88.9%) achieved sustained virological response. Conclusions: Acute HCV is an uncommon disease to diagnose; it has favorable response to therapy if initiated early after a strict surveillance of patients for 8-16 weeks.