[Viral hepatitis in hemodialysis patients]

Hemodialysis patients are one of the high-risk groups for viral hepatitis, especially hepatitis C virus(HCV) infection. Although using recombinant human erythropoietin to treat anemia and introducing HCV testing of donated blood have been expected to reduce the incidence of HCV infection, occasional transmission of HCV to hemodialysis patients still occurs. The epidemiological and phylogenetic analysis provides the evidence for nosocomial infection of HCV in hemodialysis units. On the other hand, the discrepancy between results of anti-HCV antibody and HCV RNA is observed in some hemodialysis patients, indicating that the isolation of patients positive for anti-HCV antibody is not effective for the prevention of transmission of HCV. The strict enforcement of universal precaution such as carefully changing gloves should be more important for the prevention of nosocomial infection.