prevalence and risk factors of hepatitis c infection

background& objectives: hepatitis c virus is one of the recently  discovered viruses that tend to  cause chronic liver disease. hepatitis c is one of the most common types of viral  hepatitis, cirrhosis and carcinoma of liver in hemodialysis patients. the most important risk factors of  hepatitis c in dialysis patients are blood transfusion , duration of dialysis and  kidney transplantation .today, nosocomial transmission of hepatitis c in dialysis centers is an  important problem . this study was aimed to determine prevalence and risk factors of hepatitis c among dialysis patients in kermanshah province . materials and methods : this descriptive  analytic study  was done   by census sampling  among all of the dialysis patients .data collection was based upon a questionnaire and laboratory experiment. diagnosis was made by detecting the anti hcv antibody using the third generation elisa method. the collected data were  analyzed by t and x 2 tests . results: the prevalance of hcv  was 26.4%.there was significant correlation between the existence of hcv infection  and duration of dialysis (p<0.001) ,blood transfusion (p<0.01), kidney transplantation (p<0.001), history of surgery (p<0.005). there  was no significant correlation between hcv infection  and age , sex , history of   hepalitis b vaccination,dentistry procedure, tattooing, and phlebotomy. discussion : the  prevalence of hepatitis c was the same as in other studies abroad but in comparison with community prevalence role of hemodialysis is significant ,the study showed that hemodialysis is a risk factor for getting hepatitis c .