Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a significant infectious disease which may cause chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. It is estimated that approximately 130-170 million people are infected with HCV globally. HCV prevalence and its transmission routes may vary among the countries and regions  of the world. Our country is in the section  where prevalence is between 1-1.9% on the world map. It is necessary to know and observe the changes in HCV incidences, in order to determine the magnitude of complications, such as chronic liver dysfunction related to HCV, which will affect the society in the future. For that, the most suitable step is evaluation of age-specific prevalence rates. In our country, blood transfusion, unsafe injection and  most importantly, failure to follow cleaning and disinfection rules, during medical treatments applied both in inpatient and outpatient settings, are the most important causes of the  spread of HCV. Currently, in our country, the burden of HCV related liver disease is the result of the spread of infections which have occurred in the past years, and this is at a quite significant level. If the necessary precautions are not taken, it will continue to be a problem in the future too.