prevalence of hepatitis g virus and co-infection with hepatitis b virus and hepatitis c virus among hemodialysis patients in ahvaz, iran

Background: patients on hemodialysis are at a high-risk for acquiring blood-borne infections, such as hepatitis g, hepatitis c, and hepatitis b viruses. the aim of this investigation was to determine the prevalence of hgv infection among patients on hemodialysis and its co-infection with hepatitis c and b viruses in ahvaz. methods: blood samples were collected from patients on hemodialysis during january to july, 2016. rnas were extracted from sera and cdna was prepared using the kit. the nested-polymerase chain reaction (pcr) and sequencing of positive samples were carried out to determine hepatitis g virus genotypes. in addition, to evaluate the co-infection of hgv with hepatitis c and hepatitis b virus infections, the sera of all the individuals were tested for hepatitis c virus antibody and hbs-ag by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) assay. results: the hgv rna was found in 10% of the patients with dominant genotype 2a. about 2% of the patients on hemodialysis were co-infected with hepatitis c virus while 1% of them was co-infected with hepatitis b virus. the statistical analysis revealed that there was a significant correlation (p < 0.01) between duration of the hemodialysis process and hepatitis g virus infectivity. conclusions: the present study showed that patients, who used the hemodialysis devices in this city, were infected with hepatitis g, hepatitis b, and hepatitis c viruses. the data indicates that duration of dialysis is significantly related to infection of hepatitis g virus. therefore, it is critical to control the sterility of these equipment for intercepting cross-infectivity.