Prevalence of hepatitis C virus among bilharziasis patients.

Objective: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection with concurrent Schistosoma mansoni infestation has emerged as a major cause of chronic liver disease and liver cirrhosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of HCV among bilharzia patients.

Methods: The study was conducted at the Viral Diagnostic and Parasitology Departments, Regional Laboratory and Blood Bank, Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from August 1999 to July 2000. Sera from a total of 405 patients, including 356 Saudi nationals and 49 non-Saudis, who had a clinical suspicion of bilharziasis were tested, using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for HCV infection and indirect hemagglutination tests for Schistosoma infestation. Diagnosis of schistosomiasis was made when serum anti-schistosoma antibody titer was either equal to or more than 1:256.

Results: A total of 39 cases out of 405 tested positive for bilharzia antibodies comprising of 22 (44.9%) non-Saudi and 17 (4.8%) Saudi individuals. Among these patients 7(17.9%) were found to have evidence of HCV infection. Of the 7 patients tested positive for HCV antibodies, there were 4 (26.7%) Egyptians, 2 (11.8%) Saudis and one (14.3%) Middle-Eastern.

Conclusion: Our data shows that a good proportion (17.9%) of patients with bilharziasis had HCV infection. The percentage positive for HCV antibody were 26.7% in Egyptians, which is higher when compared to other nationals and Saudis.