Current Status of Hepatitis C Virus-Infected Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients in Japan

Complete recovery using interferon therapy in Japanese hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected dialysis patients is difficult to achieve because >70 % of the HCV genotypes observed in Japan are type 1. In 2016, new direct-acting antiviral drugs against HCV genotype 1 were reported to be effective and safe for HCV-infected hemodialysis patients. Although new direct antiviral therapy has become available, no large-scale studies evaluating the status of HCV infection in Japanese hemodialysis patients have been conducted since 2007. Therefore, we conducted a questionnaire survey to determine the current status of HCV infection in patients. Our results indicated that the HCV antibody prevalence was 5.02 %, and HCV RNA prevalence was 72.3 %. Genotype testing revealed that 62.1 % of patients had HCV genotype 1. New direct antiviral therapy may improve the survival of Japanese HCV-infected dialysis patients.