Prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis C and Hepatitis B viral infections in haemodialysed patients in southern Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Haemodialysed patients are prone to contract hepatitis and this poses an additional health problem to both patients and dialysis units. This study was undertaken to study the prevalence of and the risk factors for hepatitis B and C infections in 2 dialysis units in southern Saudi Arabia. Serum samples were tested for HbsAg, HCV Ab and HIV Ab from 159 patients receiving maintenance haemodialysis in the two units. There were 83 males and the mean age was 46 years [range 10 - 90]. The prevalence of HCV Ab, HBsAg and HIV Ab were 36.5%, 5.7% and 0.6% respectively. This was not affected by age or gender, but blood transfusion and duration of dialysis were associated with a higher prevalence. Overall, these values are lower than those from the rest of Saudi Arabia probably due to the strict prophylactic measures in our dialysis centres