Abstract
BACKGROUND: Worldwide prevalence of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection hemodialysis (HD) ranges from 1 to 84.6% with serious complications. Assessment of prevalence, risk factors, and genotyping of HCV infection in patient on HD was carried out at Pune, India. METHODS: A total of 250 patients on HD from five HD centers were recruited and tested for anti-HCV antibody using third-generation enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Qualitative HCV RNA detection was carried out by nested reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Genotyping and sequencing were carried out using the BigDye Terminator cycle sequencing ready reaction kit. RESULTS: Mean age of patients was 47.3 years. Forty-seven cases out of a total of 250 were reactor for HCV antibody. Overall prevalence rate was 18.8% ranging from 6.7% to 35.6% in the five centers. Of total, 44.1% of females and 13.5% of males were HCV infected. The mean duration of HD in HCV-infected patients was 6.03 years. Prevalence was higher in patients aged > 5 years on HD with higher number of blood transfusions. Thirty-six cases were positive for HCV RNA. Only one HCV RNA was detected among the 203 anti-HCV negative samples. Discordance between antibody and HCV RNA positivity was noted. Seventeen infected cases had changed dialysis centers four times. Thirteen cases were HBsAg positive, of which six cases were coinfected with HCV. Thirty-seven samples were genotyped. CONCLUSION: The predominant genotype was 1a (54.1%) followed by 1b (43.2%) and 3a (2.7%). Highest prevalence of HCV (35.6%) and intracenter PNI of 99.3% of genotype 1b (84.6%) in center 3 indicates a possible nosocomial transmission.