Abstract

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been identified as the major cause of chronic liver disease among patients on chronic heamodialysis (HD), despite the important reduction in risks obtained by testing candidate blood donors for anti-HCV antibodies. Patients receiving maintenance HD therapy are at increased risk for acquiring this infection and have a higher prevalence of HCV than the general population.

Methods: This was a cross – section hospital based study aims to investigate the seroprevalence and associated risk factors for markers of anti-HCV among renal failure patients before starting heamodialysis treatment at Muhimbili National Hospital, Dares Salaam and Tanzania. A total of 120 renal failure patients were recruited into this study from June to July, 2016. Structured questionnaire was used to assess socio-demographic characteristics and the associated risk factors for HCV infection among study participants and the SD Bioline HCV test kit was used to measure anti-HCV antibody levels of the patients.

Result: All the participants were tested for HCV infection, whereby Out of 120 participants, 4 tested positive for HCV, which gave the overall seroprevalence of 3.3%. Males were more prominent in this study (84.2%) as compared to females, and HCV prevalence sex ratio was 3:1 for males and females. There was no association between history of surgery and blood transfusion with HCV infection.

Conclusion: Although the results suggest that HCV infection have low prevalence (3.3%) among renal failure patients before starting heamodialysis treatment at MNH. History of surgery and blood transfusion showed no association with HCV sero-positivity but they are major factors to decrease the prevalence and further prevent new infection from these patients. Further studies to look for genotype and risk factors are recommended.

Keywords: Heamodialysis; Hepatitis c; Prevalence; Muhimbili; Tanzania