Hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus prevalence among dialysis patients in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia: a survey by serologic and molecular methods.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections were assessed among 81 Bahraini and 34 Saudi hemodialysis patients and 7714 Bahraini and 2330 Saudi blood donors. Higher prevalence of HCV (9.24% vs 0.30%), hepatitis B surface antigen (5.88% vs 0.62%) were seen in patients versus control patients, and in Saudi patients compared with Bahraini patients. HCV genotypes were HCV 1a/1b plus HCV 4 among Bahraini patients and HCV 2/2a plus HCV 4 among Saudi patients. This is the first report on viral hepatitis in Bahrain and the first to compare HBV/HCV among dialysis patients in the Eastern Arabian Peninsula.