Frequency of Hepatitis C Virus in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients on Regular Hemo Dialysis at Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the significant cause of morbidity and mortality in patients on haemodialysis. Hemodialysis patients are also in a high risk of getting infected with HCV and the infection rate is much higher when compared to non-haemodialysis patients. The purpose of the research is to determine the frequency of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection and determine the risk factors in the case of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients receiving routine haemodialysis. Subjects and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study conducted at the Department of Medicine, DHQ Teaching Hospital/Gomal Medical College, Dera Ismail Khan between December 2024 and May 2025. One hundred and one adult patients with chronic kidney disease of stage 4 or 5 who were receiving maintenance haemodialysis were recruited. The diagnosis of HCV infection was made by the third generation Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) of anti-HCV antibodies. Demographic and clinical information was collected and stratified analysis was done to establish relationship with HCV status using Chi-square test. Results: The overall rate of the HCV infection was 28.1% (34 out of 121). The population average age was 38.23 years old with a standard deviation of 12.55 and majority of the population being male (60.3%) and 73.6% were urban inhabitants. Stratification revealed significant negative relationship between hypertension and HCV status and more so, hypertension was more prevalent among non-hypertensive (37.5% vs. 20.0%, p=0.033). Residency was found to have a significant trend, with a much higher prevalence of HCV found in rural patients (40.6%) as compared to urban patients (23.6%, p=0.066). There were no significant relationships of HCV status and gender, age, BMI, diabetes, or CKD length. Conclusions: According to our study, the prevalence of haemodialysis population with regard to HCV infection is high. The significant association between the absence of hypertension and the significant pattern of living in rural areas indicates the need to have better, assessed infection control strategies and targeted screening strategies on the high-risk groups with a view to reducing the burden of HCV among the at-risk group.