ABSTRACT
To find out the prevalence of Hepatitis B by serologicai monitoring in chronic hemodialysis patients. The study was carried out in the department of Microbiology BMSI, JPMC Karachi, from January 2010 till February 2011. Two hundred blood samples were coiiected from the patients on chronic maintenance hemodialysis from the different hospitals/ dialysis centres in Karachi, that had at least twenty cycles of hemodialysis in tertiary care hospitals of Karachi. Biood was collected from each patient and the test was performed according to the standard protocol. Out of 200 patients, 51 [25.5%] patients were already vaccinated for HBV while in 149 [74.5%] patients there was no history of HBV vaccination. Among these 149 patients, 32 [21.47%] showed seropositivity for HBV infections in our study. The risk for acquiring these infections is significantly as-sociated with increasing duration of dialysis. Mean age of 56.7_SD 0.68 years with male predominance. There are only 25.5% patients who were vaccinated against HBV infection among 200 patients. The study revealed that HBV prevalence was commonly found among dialysis patients and only quarter of them were vaccinated. The vaccination should be mandatory in dialysis centers to prevent and control hepatitis B in hemodialysis units