Seropositivity to hepatitis C virus in Tunisian haemodialysis patients

S Jemni1, K Ikbel, M Kortas

  • 1Centre Régional de Transfusion Sanguine, Laboratoire d'Hématologie, CHU Farhat Hached, Sousse, Tunisie.

Nouvelle Revue Francaise D'Hematologie
|October 1, 1994
PubMed

The prevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) antibodies and of hepatitis B markers (HBs antigen, anti-hepatitis B core antigen) was assessed in 63 haemodialysis patients from the Tunisian Sahel. As measured by second generation ELISA assays (Ortho and Organon), the frequency of anti-HCV antibodies was 42% (27/63), while 4 patients (6.3%) were HBs Ag positive and 30 (47.6%) anti-HBc positive. Anti-HCV seropositivity was significantly correlated with duration of dialysis (p = 0.007) and number of blood transfusions (> 10 units, p = 0.0004). Among 12 subjects with a history of abnormal ALAT levels, 10 were anti-HCV positive (p = 0.0016) and the results suggest hepatitis C viral infection to be the main cause of liver disease in haemodialysis patients in Tunisia.

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