evaluation of anti-hepatitis e virus antibody among hemodialysis patients in gorgan, north of iran

Background and aims: hepatitis e virus is a public health concern and about a third of people in the world live in endemic areas. although hev is believed to be transmitted by fecal-oral routes between humans in low sanitary conditions, but evidence of transmission have been reported in hemodialysis (hd) patients. materials and methods: the aim of present study was to determine the prevalence of anti-hev antibody among hd patients in gorgan, north of iran. in this cross-sectional study, totally 300 hd patients from may to december 2014 were tested for detection of anti-hev igg and igm by commercial hev enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) kit. demographic variables were collected in pre-designed questionnaires. results: out of 300 individuals, 148 (49.3%) were male and 152 (50.7%) were female. the overall anti-hev igg seroprevalence rate was 4%. result showed significant association between anti-hev igg and duration of dialysis (p = 0.03), but there were no significant differences between the subjects grouped according to gender, ethnicity, dialysis per week and age. no anti-hev igm were detected in patients. conclusions: since our finding showed statically significant relationship between duration of hemodialysis and anti-hev. therefore, hemodialysis maybe be considered as a risk factor in hev transmission. however further studies are needed to confirm our data.