SEROPREVALENCE OF HEPATITIS B AND C VIRUSES IN CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE PATIENTS IN INDORE

The present reports the prevalence of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C infection in Chronic kidney Patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis (HD) are at higher risk for acquiring Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infections than the general population. We aimed to investigate the incidence and prevalence of HBV and HCV infection in the HD population. A total of 142 patients were selected from 10 dialysis centers at Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Testing for Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-HCV antibodies was performed at initiation of dialysis and every 3–6 months thereafter. Patients who were sero-negative for HBV and HCV were followed up for 1 year to detect sero-conversions. New HBV infection was found in 7.19% of hemodialysis patients and 9.58% of patients got new HCV infection during hemodialysis. 83.3% of new HBV infected person required blood transfusion during the course of hemodialysis whereas all the new cases of HCV infection required blood transfusion during hemodialysis. Newer methods like Real Time PCR should be adapted for the screening of blood product at hemodialysis setup.