Spatial Patterns of Hepatitis C Disease in Ghadezai Tehsil District Buner,Khyber Paktunkhwa, Pakistan

The relationship between the disease and location is not a new concept if we look in the history of epidemiology since in the ancient Greek era, Hippocrates (5th-4th centuries BC) was aware and recognized the effect of location on one’s health. Early physicians found that the people living at high and low elevation experienced differences in diseaseshttp://www.omicsgroup.org/journals/spatial-patterns-of-hepatitis-c-disease-in-ghadezai-tehsil-district-bunerkhyber-paktunkhwa-pakistan-2167-0587-1000146.pdf. The earlier spatial and temporal studies of this virus suggested that the spread of this virus started in the early twentieth century and potentially increased a lot up to 1980. According to the WHO’s epidemiological data, the prevalence of HCV is less than 1% in northern Europe, Canada, Australia and USA.

While in different regions of Latin America, Central Asia, South East Asia and Africa the HCV prevalence rate is more than 2% and the prevalence of this disease is reported between 5 to 10% [1] The world epidemiological data suggested that about 130 to 180 million people that make 2 to 3% of the entire world population are victim of HCV and more than 4 million people are chronically infected by HCV in Oceania, 16 million in the Arabian countries and Middle East region. The infections are high as 83 million in the continent Asia. The infection caused by HCV in Africa is 28 million and America and Europe have 16 and 17.5 million respectively.

Disease maps provide a rapid visual summary of complex geographic information’s and may identify delicate patterns in the data that are missed in tabular presentations. They are used for different descriptive purposes, to make hypotheses as to etiology, for surveillance to show areas at high risk, and to aid policy formation and resource allocation. They are also useful to help place specific disease clusters and results of point-source studies in proper context.