The major cause of the liver cancer is the hepatitis C. The infection of the disease occurs in the blood which leads to the cirrohsis of the liver that ultimately leads to cancer. The disease incidence is on the rise annually with 170 million people around the world reported for the infection. The disease primarily spreads through the direct contact of the human blood, and the hisk risk groups for the disease include, injecting drug users, people who are the recipients of the blood unscreened for the disease, haemophiliacs, the people who resort to the unconventional and unsafe sexual pratices and the patients who go for frequent dialysis.
(Hepatitis C, fact sheet, WHO, media center,2000). One major cause of the increasing percentage of hepatocellular carcinoma or HCC is the virus of Hepatitis C, and there is a wide temporal and geographical variation of the incidence of the disease. (Wasley. A, Alter. M. J, 2000, Hayakawa. K. A et. al, 2003). In countries like US and Australia, the percentage prevalence of the disease is more in young adults in comparison with Japan, where the disease prevalence is more in older adults. (Takashi Moriya et. al, 1999).
In many countries of Asia, the disease was observed in all the age groups, indicating the fact that there exists a high risk for the transmission of the disease. however, the important factors for the spread of the disease are the injection of the drugs and the unhealthy medical practices such as using contaminated syringes and the medical equipment. (Wasley. A, Alter. M. J, 2000, La Torre. G et. al, 2003, Kao. J. H and Chen. D. S, 2000). Most of the studies attribute the spread of the disease to the donation of the unscreened blood to the disease. (Sy. T and Jamal. M. M, 2006).
The disease is not traceable in its acute stages because of its asymptomatic nature, and the risk of the transmission of the disease is associated with the people with chronic infection. The disease is epidemic in that the percentage occurrence of the disease is 3% around the world. (WHO. (1999), Global surveillance). Cultural factors contribute to the frequency of the risk factors associated with the disease and the variation in the disease incidence in different regions. The present study focuses on the medical and anthropological factors responsible for epidemic proportions of the disease Hepatitis C in the world.