Prevalence of anti-HCV antibody and related risk factors among bleeding disorder patients in Yazd province of Iran

Inherited bleeding disorder is a disease due to deficiency in clotting factors or platelets. Replacement therapy of unscreened blood and blood products or unviricidal concentrated clotting factors would expose these patients to risk of acquired hepatitis C. The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of hepatitis C virus and related risk factors among bleeding disorder patients in Yazd province. This cross-sectional study was performed in Yazd province in summer 2006 using census method. Following data collection through questionnaires, blood samples were taken from 77 (82.8%) patients. Plasma samples were tested for the presence of anti-HCV antibody via a third-generation ELISA kit. To exclude false positive cases, ELISA positive samples were re-tested by the confirmatory third generation RIBA test. The assessment of risk factors was done from the information analysis of both the questionnaires and test results by Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression analysis, using SPSS 11.5 statistic software. The frequency of anti-HCV antibody was found in 38 (49.4%) patients. Chi-square test showed a statistically significant relationship between the severe form of the disease (in terms of blood products needed) (P<0.001), treatment duration of more than 121 months (P<0.001) and family history to HCV (P<0.05) antibody positivity. Successful execution of the screening of the blood and blood products as well as more scrutiny in preparing concentrated factors have been led to a remarkable decrease in the new infections among the recipients of these products in Yazd province.