chennai at least one in every twentyfive people living in north chennai have been tested positive for hepatitis a random screening of 1297 people in six different locations of north chennai by the madras medical college showed 61 of them positive for hepatitis while 44 had hepatitis b17 were positive for hepatitis c madras medical college dean dr s kanakasabai who released the results on wednesday said the college organised awareness and screening programme using blood samples the liver diseases at six locations harbour seven wells street wall tax road broadway sathya nagar war memorial and bharathi womens college to commemorate world hepatitis day which falls on thursday the screening was done for people from the lower socioeconomic groups every day for the last one week these patients were apparently healthy they did not know they were carriers of the disease said dr kanakasabai the results shocked not only the patients but also many doctors in the college we did not expect that more than 4of the people will be tested positive he said those tested positive will be treated at the government general hospital which is attached to the college their close relatives will also be screened the college is also planning to extend the study to across the city hepatitisis an inflammation of the liver most commonly caused by a viral infection there are five main hepatitis viruses referredto as types a b c d and e hepatitis could lead to illness and death in particular types b and c lead to chronic disease in hundreds of millions of people and together are the most common cause of liver cirrhosis and cancer hepatitis a and e are typically caused by ingestion of contaminated food or water hepatitis b c and d like hiv usually occur as a result of contact with infected body fluids acute infection may occur with limited or no symptoms or may include symptoms such as jaundice yellowing of the skin and eyes dark urine extreme fatigue nausea vomiting and abdominal pain surgical gasteroentrologist dr r surendran who works with stanley medical collegel says hospital medical records show that nearly 6 of north chennai has hepatitis b and nearly 1 have hepatitis c but we thought our data was skewed because only people with problems came to our hospital he said