Hepatitis C risk factor for patients submitted to dialysis

Abstract

This article reports the results of the research which has evaluated the prevalence and factors associated to the presence of Hepatitis C in patients submitted to dialysis at the Clinica de Doenças Renais (Clinic of Renal Diseases) in Tubarao city (CRDT), Santa Catarina State, Brazil, in the period between January 1 st , 2004 to December 31 st in the same year. The prevalence of 16.8% of Hepatitis C in the studied population and the time-length of dialysis as significative risk factor have become evident. The non-correlation of seropositivity of the followings factors is also indicated: age, gender, base diseases, infrastructures, the type of clinic machines, the type of dialyser, used membranes, the machine sterilisation and substances for this process as well as the number of times of the dialyser reutilization. The data represented in this project suggest that the Hepatitis C presents high prevalence in patients in dialysis and the time-length of the treatment is a risky factor to acquire the infection.

Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection and genotypes in patient with chronic kidney disease undergoing hemodialysis

“…The prevalence of anti‐HCV antibodies was 8.4% in the present study, a rate higher than the rate of 5.8% reported by the 2010 Brazilian dialysis census [Sesso et al, ]. A prevalence of 8.4% was also observed in the city of Recife, Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil [Mello et al, ], whereas higher rates were reported for hemodialysis units in different regions of Brazil: 16.8% in the city of Tubarão, Santa Catarina [Baldessar et al, ], 16.4% in the State of Goiás [Carneiro et al, ], and 14.8% in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais [Leão et al, ]. Lower rates of anti‐HCV antibodies have been observed in Canada [Tu et al, ] and England [Ghafur et al, ] (5.4% and 3.3%, respectively), whereas Kalantar‐Zadeth et al, [] reported a higher prevalence in the United States (12%) and Khan et al [] in Pakistan (29.2%).…”