Prevalence of Anti HCV Infection in Patients with Beta-Thalassemia in Isfahan-Iran

Objectives: hepatitis c virus (hcv) is the major cause of posttransfusionhepatitis infection (pth). patients with thalassemia majorare at high risk of hepatitis c due to the blood transfusion from donorsinfected by hcv. the aim of this study was to detect the prevalence ofanti-hcv antibodies and risk factors in multitransfused thalassemicpatients in isfahan-iran to establish more preventive strategies.methods: this study was conducted to assess the patients with betathalassemiain isfahan hospitals during 1996-2011 for hcv infection.a structured interview questionnaire was developed by the trainedresearcher to collect the demographic and risk factors. statistical analysiswas done by chi-square test, mann-withney and multiple logisticregressions using spss software, version 15.results: 466 patients with major thalassemia participated in this study.the mean age of patients was 17.46 ± 8.3. two hundred and seventy(58.3%) and 193 (41.7%) of participants were male and female, respectively.the prevalence of hcv was estimated 8% among thalassemiapatients. history of surgery, history of dental procedure, number ofunits transfused per month, number of transfusion per month andduration of transfusion had significant association with hcv seropositivityin univariate analysis. there were no statistical significant riskfactors for hcv seropositivity in multiple logistic regression models.conclusions: our findings revealed that blood transfusion was themain risk factors for hcv infection among beta-thalassemic patients.therefore, more blood donor screening programs and effective screeningtechniques are needed to prevent transmission of hcv infectionamong beta-thalassemic patients.