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The prevalence of HCV in dialysis patients has been reported in several South Asian countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India. However, no study illustrated the prevalence of HCV in hemodialysis patients in Afghanistan. Therefore, this is the first study to show HCV prevalence in chronic hemodialysis patients in northern Afghanistan.
This cross-sectional study was conducted at Balk Regional Hospital from September 2022 to February 2023. All patients who initiated hemodialysis were screened for HCV antibodies before the initiation of dialysis and during follow-up. The prevalence of HCV and its associated factors were analyzed using the logistic regression model.
The baseline charecteristic is shown in table 1. This study included 177 patients on chronic hemodialysis from seven different provinces of Northern part of Afghanistans (Figure 1), 69 (38.98%) were female, and the mean age of the patients was 38.14 ±17.82 years. Overall, the prevalence of HCV was 1.1% in the general population of Afghanistan and 11.9% in the present study among chronic hemodialysis patients. The 53 (29.94%) patients underwent hemodialysis twice a week and 107 (60.45%) patients once a week, and 17 patients regularly underwent hemodialysis every ten days intervals (Table 2). In the univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis, dialysis patients with twice-a-week and frequent blood transfusions were significantly associated with the risk of Seropositivity of HCV.
In conclusion, for the first time, this study illustrated the prevalence of HCV on chronic hemodialysis in the northern region of Afghanistan with an 11.9% rate. The risk of Seropositivity was significantly associated with patients undergoing dialysis twice a week along with frequent blood transfusions.