Hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus prevalence among dialysis patients in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia: A survey by serologic and molecular methods

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December 2004 . Volume 32 . Number 8

Brief Report

Hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus prevalence among dialysis patients in

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia: A survey by serologic and molecular methods

Abeer A. Qadi a ,Hala Tamim b

Ghada Ameen a ,Abdulrahman Bu-Ali a

Sameer Al-Arrayed a ,Naglaa A. Fawaz c

Wassim Y. Almawi a *

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections were assessed

among 81 Bahraini and 34 Saudi hemodialysis patients and 7714 Bahraini and

2330 Saudi blood donors. Higher prevalence of HCV (9.24% vs 0.30%),

hepatitis B surface antigen (5.88% vs 0.62%) were seen in patients versus

control patients, and in Saudi patients compared with Bahraini patients. HCV

genotypes were HCV 1a/1b plus HCV 4 among Bahraini patients and HCV 2/2a

plus HCV 4 among Saudi patients. This is the first report on viral hepatitis

in Bahrain and the first to compare HBV/HCV among dialysis patients in the

Eastern Arabian Peninsula.

Publishing and Reprint Information

From the College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University,

Manama, Bahraina; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, American

University of Beirut, Lebanonb; and Department of Hematology, King Faisal

University, Dammam, Saudi Arabiac

*Reprint requests: Wassim Y. Almawi, Ph.D., College of Medicine and Medical

Sciences, Arabian Gulf University, PO Box 22979, Manama, Bahrain; Email:

wyalmawi@...

Copyright © 2004 by Association for Professionals in Infection Control and

Epidemiology, Inc.

Manama, Bahrain, Beruit, Lebanon, and Dammam, Saudi Arabia

doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2003.12.009