“…The data from Iran seem to be lower than those from other countries of the region such as Kuwait (Al fuzae et al , 1998), Bahrain (AlMahroos & Ebrahimi, 1995) and Jordan (Al Sheyyab et al , 2001), with reports of 33 and 40% seropositivity, respectively, as well as the 50% seropositivity reported for patients from North India (Marwaha et al , 2003), 60% in Italian thalassaemics (Angeluce, 1994), 34% in haemoglobinopathy cases in Brazil (dePaula et al , 2005) and also from 34·1% reported for European patients in France, Italy and Belgium(deMotalambert et al , 1992). However, the results are close to those in Malaysia with 22·4% (Jamal et al , 1998)) and Cuba with 21·2% seropositive cases (Ballester et al , 2005). All the above reports similar to those of the groups from Iran, which include long‐term patients prior to anti‐HCV screening.…”