Prevalence and incidence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in hemodialysis patients: study of risk factors.

The prevalence of antibodies against hepatitis C virus (HCV) was assessed in 246 hemodialysis patients who attended a dialysis unit in Bari, using a recombinant enzyme immunoassay test (Abbot Lab.). Fifty-six (22.8%) sera were reactive to anti-HCV. The reactivity was confirmed in 46 specimens (18.7%) using the Abbott EIA HCV neutralization test. The anti-HCV prevalence was higher in males than in females and increased with age, duration of dialysis and number of transfusions. Moreover, a correlation between the presence of anti-HCV and the persistent increase of ALT was noted. The HCV-infection attack rate was calculated using the frozen sera collected from 1984 to 1990: the incidence of infection in the first year was 6.1%, and in following years 4.6%, 4.9%, 3.1%, 2.1% and 2.2%, respectively.