Hepatitis C and hepatitis B seroprevalence and associated risk factors in hemodialysis patients in Guilan province, north of Iran

Background: hepatitis c virus (hcv) and hepatitis b virus (hbv) infection are especially problematic in patients with end-stage renal disease who are undergoing hemodialysis (hd).objectives: to determine the prevalence of hcv and hbv infection in hd population in guilan,north of iran.patients and methods: in a cross-sectional study, from may to september 2009, in 11 different hemodialysis units in guilan province, north of iran, clinical data such as age, gender, duration of dialysis, hbsag and anti-hcv antibody of 514 hd patients were recorded. patients with positive antibodies against hcv were tested for hcv rna.results: from 514 patients, 286 (55.64%) were male. 61 (11.9%) patients were anti-hcv-positive and 31 (50.8%) were hcv pcr-positive. there was significant relationship between hcv abpositivity with gender and hd duration (p < 0.05). there was significant difference between the mean hd duration in anti-hcv-positive and anti-hcv-negative patients (p < 0.05). also,significant relationship was found between hcv rna-positivity with gender and hd duration (p < 0.05). seven (1.4%) patients were positive for hbsag. two (0.38 %) were found positive for both hbsag and anti-hcv antibody.conclusions: there is low a prevalence of hcv and hbv in hd patients in our region. the rate can be decreased by hbv vaccination of end-stage renal disease patients before setting chronic hd, antiviral treatment and isolation of infected individuals.