Hepatitis C virus (HCV) Infection Rate among Seronegative Hemodialysis Patients Screened by Two Methods; HCV Core Antigen and Polymerase Chain Reaction.

Background: End-stage renal disease patients on chronic hemodialysis are among high risk groups for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection for whom routine HCV screening is recommended. Anti-HCV antibody (ab) testing may not be reliable to detect all infected cases because of the blunted ab response due to depressed immune state in these patients. Using a more reliable, cost-effective and non-complex HCV screening test may be necessary in this group of patients for case finding and management, and also for prevention of infection spread.