Background: Viral hepatitis infections remain an important public health issue not only in Saudi Arabia but also worldwide. Globally, 1 in 3 people have been infected with a type of viral hepatitis infection while in Saudi Arabia, viral hepatitis infections increased from 6,405 cases to be 11,142 cases in the past 3 years. This study aims to determine the incidence rates of viral hepatitis in Majmaah city in the past 3 years (2017-2019) and compare them with incidence rates in Saudi Arabia.
Methodology: The data of patients with viral hepatitis for the past 3 years were collected from archives in King Khaled Hospital in Majmaah city and analyzed with different statistical methods by using Statistical Analysis System software (SAS version 9.4). Results: There was a total of 61 cases of viral hepatitis infections reported. In general, 39.34% of these cases were males and 60.65% were females. Of those, 3.27% were from the age group ≤ 18 or fewer years. The age groups (19-30), (31-40), (41-50), (51-60) and 61 or more years constituted 27.86%, 13.11%, 21.31%, 16.39%, and 18.03%, respectively. Most of the cases were hepatitis B virus (59.01%). The other types of viral hepatitis infections hepatitis A virus, hepatitis C virus, hepatitis D virus, and hepatitis E virus constituted 3.27%, 34.42%, 0.00%, and 3.27%, respectively. Conclusions: The present study concludes that viral hepatitis infections trend for the past three years in Majmaah city was in line with the hepatitis infections trend in Saudi Arabia.
Key words: Epidemiology, hepatitis, Majmaah, public health, health informatics.
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