Occult Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Hemodialysis

Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C Virus Infection among End Stage Renal Disease Patients on Maintenance Hemodialysis, Their Family Members and Dialysis Staffs - A Prevalence Study

“…Now-a-days, after adopting strict infection control protocols, this has come down to 0.08% for patients and 0.05% for staff in hemodialysis units. 7 In Bangladesh, around 14% of all patients on MHD were serologically positive for hepatitis B infection shown in a registry report of 1986-96. 1 In the present study a similar prevalence of HBV infection in dialysis is seen.…”

Sex bias in response to hepatitis B vaccination in end-stage renal disease patients: Meta-analysis

“…In the dialysis setting, HBV vaccination has been confirmed as an essential part of immunization, and guidelines proposed by several experts as well as health organizations almost universally recommended this procedure for this patient population [5,26,27] . These recommendations are despite the fact that patients with advanced kidney diseases have compromised immune system function, and cannot well respond to any immunization attempt made through vaccination.…”

“…Nevertheless, despite all the precautions, there are still a relatively large proportion of dialysis patients who develop the infection [4] . For the same reason, hepatitis B vaccination is an inevitable part of any preventive protocol that has been developed and proposed by health societies for the dialysis setting [5] . As mentioned, vaccination against HBV infection, though very effective, has not thoroughly eradicated the infection in the dialysis patients [6] .…”

Occult hepatitis B virus infection in Egyptian hemodialysis patients with or without hepatitis C virus infection

“…36 Aminotransferase levels in the "normal" range for the general population may be indicative of a pathologic state in the dialysis setting. Thus, an increase in the baseline levels of these enzymes does not have to reach the "high abnormal" range to indicate the presence of HBV-related liver disease, 11 suggesting that the relationship between aminotransferase activity and degree of HBV-mediated liver damage in dialysis patients is not accurate. This dyscorrelation could be due to an intermittent increase in aminotransferase activity and fluctuation of HBV viral load over time, possible infection with low virulent HBV strains, and/or quality and magnitude of host immune responses against infection.…”

“…In other patients, occult HBV may exist in the absence of all anti-HBV antibody markers. 5 Several studies have reported higher prevalence of occult HBV infection in patients with chronic HCV, hepatocellular carcinoma, cryptogenic liver disease, intravenous drug use, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, and in hemophilic patients who have received several blood transfusions and in blood donors [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] when compared with the general population. In addition to the potential risk of nosocomial HBV transmission in hemodialysis units, occult HBV infection increases the risk of HBV transmission through blood transfusion and organ transplantation.…”