Detection of antibodies to hepatitis C virus in dialysis patients.

Dialysis patients are at risk for infection by a variety of blood-borne agents transmitted within dialysis units. The development of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening test prompted many studies on the prevalence of anti-HCV among dialysis patients. The authors have evaluated the prevalence of anti-HCV in 405 hemodialysis patients both by Elisa screening and 4-RIBA test system with a follow-up of two years. The study showed a difference in the incidence of antibodies to HCV by year. In 1990, 15.2% were positive with an increase to 20.8% in 1991. There was an increase of 5% in dialysis patients and only 1.9% in the personnel working in the dialysis ward. Another control group of volunteers did not show any positivity. In addition, the correlations of the antibodies against HCV with markers of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and history of transfusion were evaluated. These findings suggest that the patients found to be positive should be dialyzed on separate machines and special precautions must be undertaken to reduce the risk of transmission.