Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection among hemodialysis patients in a single center in Yemen.

To evaluate the prevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) among the hemodialysis patients and to identify the risk factors of infection in relation to age, sex, blood transfusions, duration of dialysis and primary cause of end stage-kidney disease. We studied 51 patients who were on chronic hemodialysis (HD) at the Al-Gamhourea Teaching Hospital, Aden, Yemen, during Jan-Dec 2007. All the patients were tested for anti-HCV antibody, and we used 100 healthy blood donors as controls. The anti-HCV antibody prevalence rate among the HD patients was found to be significantly higher than that in the control group (62.7% and 0.8%, respectively). The prevalence rate of anti-HCV antibody was higher among men (64%) than that in women (35%). The anti-HCV antibody-positive patients were significantly older than the anti-HCV-antibody-negative patients (66.5 ± 14.4 years versus 57.5 ± 15.4 years; P = 0.01). Diabetic nephropathy was a more frequent cause of end-stage renal disease among the anti-HCV antibody-positive patients (30%) than among the anti-HCV antibody-negative patients (19%). Among the anti-HCV-positive patients, 80% had received a blood transfusion, which was significantly higher than the 20% rate among the anti-HCV antibody-negative patients (P < 0.001).