[Viral hepatitis associated with prolonged hemodialysis treatment]

Viral hepatitis has a high incidence both among patients on hemodialysis and among the attending personnel. A clinical epidemiological study on hepatitis epidemic was carried out at the department of hemodialysis--Research Institute of Nephrology, Urology, Hemodialysis and Transplantation--for an eight-year period. Twenty two per cent of the patients were affected by hepatitis infection and 27.1 per cent of the personnel. The disease has, more often, a subclinical course in the patients on hemodialysis, manifested not later than one year after the initiation of hemodialysis treatment. The epidemic of viral hepatitis a chain of five epidemic outbreaks with a considerable predomination of HBsAg--positive forms. About 15 per cent of the patients on hemodialysis are chronic carriers of HBsAg, being, very likely, associated with the altered immune reactivity. All those data support the necessity of the introduction of a campaign programme against hepatitis epidemic.