PERCENTAGE OF PATIENT AFFORDABILITY AND ELIGIBILITY FOR ANTIVIRAL THERAPY ACCORDING TO CHILD PUGH SCORE IN HEPATITS “C” VIRUS (HCV) POSITIVE PATIENTS

Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus. Acute HCV infection is usually asymptomatic and is only very rarely associated with life threatening disease. About 15-45% of infected persons spontaneously clear the virus within 6 months of infection without any treatment, whereas remaining 55-85 % were develop chronic HCV infection and risk of cirrhosis occur. A prospective, observational study will be conducted in patients attending inpatient and outpatient department at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, Punjab. The proposed study will find out the percentage of patient eligibility for antiviral therapy according to child pugh score in hepatitis “c” virus (HCV) positive patients. The study will help to find out the   percentage of the patient eligible for the antiviral therapy according to the child pugh score and to determine the affordability of antiviral therapy because many of these drugs have frequent side effects and a high cost, so that usually only a proportion of patients is eligible for treatment. Hence this study determine the number of patients that are able to take antiviral therapy according to their cost as well as their eligibility according to child pugh score.