Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 14
By Umid Niayesh- Trend:
About 1.4 million Iranians suffer from Hepatitis B, which indicates that average prevalence of the disease is about 2 percent, head of the Iran Hepatitis Network, Seyed Moayed Alavian said, Fars news agency reported on Dec. 14.
The world countries are divided in three groups of low, medium and high in terms of hepatitis infection prevalence, Alavian said, adding that Iran ranks medium in terms of the infection prevalence.
He also estimated that about 200,000 Iranians have Hepatitis C. The Hepatitis C prevalence is about 0.5 percent, Alavian added.
On July 29, ISNA quoted faculty member of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Nasser Ebrahim Daryani as saying the number of people infected with Hepatitis C has increased in Iran.
He also noted that "at the same time the amount of people infected with Hepatitis B has also decreased."
"Of all drug addicts, about 40 percent have Hepatitis C," Daryani said, adding that the number of injecting drug users in the country has grown as well.
He noted that most of the time both Hepatitis B and C develop with single men, and those who serve sentences in prisons.
In October 2012, Deputy Head of Iran's Drug Control Headquarters Taha Taheri said there are more than 100,000 prisoners in Iran, serving sentences for drug-related crimes.
According to official statistics, there are about 2 million drug addicts living in Iran.