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Abstract
Hepatitis is a major public health problem all over the world. (1) It is a cause of considerable morbidity and mortality in the human population. (2) Hepatitis literally implies inflammation of the liver.
The term chronic hepatitis means active, ongoing inflammation of the liver persisting for more than six months that is detectable by biochemical and histologic means. Hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses are the most common causes of chronic liver disease worldwide.
Treatment options are very limited and their result is disappointed. The conventional medicine depend mainly on interferon for treatment of both chronic hepatitis B and C. Combination of interferon and antiviral agent such as ribivirin is used for treatment of chronic hepatitis C patients relapsed after interferon therapy. Also, new nucleoside analogue currently licensed drugs include lamivudine, adefovir and entecavir are used for treatment of chronic hepatitis B.
Because of low response of conventional therapy and it’s severe side effect some patients tried complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
The extent and types of CAM used by chronic hepatitis B and C is unknown and it is always neglected from the physicians.
The current study aimed to study utilization of complementary and alternative medicine in treatment of chronic viral hepatitis B and C by patients attending internal medicine outpatient clinic of Alexandria Main University Hospital. More specific objectives included identification of complementary and alternative medicine types used in treatment of chronic viral hepatitis B and C, calculate usage rates and relate utilization to some sociodemographic characteristics of the paitiens.
A total of 200 patients were interviewed using prepared questionnaire over 3 months period to collect data related to their personal and medical history, their condition, investigations, their awareness, perception and behavior towards CAM. Usage, sources of getting it and Satisfaction with CAM therapy.
The following results were obtained.
Section I: Sociodemographic characteristics of patients.
The mean age of the studied patients was 48.71 ± 10.90 years. In respect to their sex (52%) of the studied group were females and (48%) were males. As regard patients’ residence, it was found that more than half of the patients (58.5%) were from rural areas and the rest (41.5%) were from urban areas. As regard the marital status of the studied patients the vast majority were married (83.5%) while divorced, widowed and single constituted (6.5, 6.5 and 3.5%) respectively. In respect to the educational status of the studied group about two thirds (65 %) of patients were illiterate, while those holding the university degree were (2%) only. On assessing the working status of the studied group, it was found that the vast majority of patients weren’t working (83.5%).