High prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis C virus in three haemodialysis centres in south-western Poland

We assessed the prevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV)antibodies and markers of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infectionin patients of three haemodia lysis centres before initiatinganti-HBV vaccinations. Of the 94 patients, 39 (41.5%) were anti-HCVpositive (+) and 81(86.2%) were anti-hepatitis B core antigen(HBc) positive. There was a high rate of anti-HBc positivityamong anti-HCV (+) patients (92.3%), although the presence ofanti-HCV and anti-HBc antibodies were not significantly relatedto each other. Multiple blood transfusions (5 units) was a nskfactor for development of HCV infection (P0.02), while noneof our patients admitted intravenous drug abuse. Although 53.8%of anti-HCV (+) patients have had moderate serum alanine aminotransferase(ALT) elevations during the study period, none has had considerableliver disease, nor did the increased ALT correlate with thepresence of anti-HCV. Only two of 17 staff members participatingin the survey were anti HCV (+), though almost every one gavea history of accidental needlestick exposure. All the studysubjects were human immunodefloency virus (HIV) negative. Ourresults, obtained with the second-generation, highly specificenzyme immunoassay and verified by the immunoblot assay foranti-HCV antibodies, sup port a recent suggestion that earlierreports might have underestimated the true prevalence of anti-HCVanti bodies in haemodialysis patients.