Seroprevalence of hepatitis B and C infection among Nigerian subjects with chronic kidney disease

Abstract

Background and Objective: The prevalence of hepatitis virus infection in subjects with chronic kidney disease (CKD) has important implications for the etiology of kidney disease, infection safety in hemodialysis, and increases challenges in management consideration. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among our patients with CKD before the commencement of dialysis. Methods: All CKD patients (n = 1388) dialyzed between January 1996 and December 2012 were enrolled into the study. Demographic data and etiology of CKD were extracted from case records. Patients were screened for HBV and HCV at initiation of dialysis. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), HCV antibodies were measured using specific enzyme-linked immunoassay kits (Bio Rad Monalisa HBsAg ULTRA kit, Marnes–la-Coquette, France; HCV Dia.Pro Diagnostics Milano Italy, respectively). All subjects with HIV infection were excluded from the study. Results: The studied group comprised 511 (36.8%) females; the mean age of the patients was 46.1 ± 15.3 years. Eighty-three (6.0%) patients were HBsAg positive, whereas 16 (1.2%) were HCV antibody positive. No difference was observed in gender occurrence. Patients with chronic glomerulonephritis (GN) were significantly more likely to be HBsAg positive (9%) compared with those with hypertension (5.5%) or diabetes (5.3%) (P = 0.015). Conclusion: The prevalence of HBV in CKD patients was high, whereas HCV was low. HBV was significantly associated with chronic GN. Routine screening of all patients with CKD and before hemodialysis for HBV should be mandatory, especially in HBV endemic regions of the world.

Keywords

• Chronic kidney disease
• hemodialysis
• hepatitis B virus
• hepatitis C