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1. East Afr Med J. 1995 Jun;72(6):362-4.
The prevalence of hepatitis C virus antibodies in renal patients, blood donors
and patients with chronic liver disease in Kenya.
Ilako FM(1), McLigeyo SO, Riyat MS, Lule GN, Okoth FA, Kaptich D.
Author information:
(1)Department of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi.
We tested serum samples from four categories of patients with nephrological
problems (nephrotic syndrome, stable chronic renal failure, haemodialysis
patients and renal transplant recipients), patients with chronic liver disease
and volunteer blood donors for the presence of antibody to hepatitis C virus
(HCV). Screening was done by second-generation enzyme linked immunosorbent assay
(ELISA) and confirmation with second-generation recombinant immunoblot assay
(RIBA). Of all the renal patients, only 6.3% of the transplant patients tested
positive for anti-HCV, while in patients with chronic liver disease anti-HCV was
detected in 2.6% of the patients with chronic hepatitis and in none with liver
cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. This finding of low prevalence in these
patient groups was not in keeping with findings in studies done elsewhere. Our
anti-HCV prevalence of 0.9% in blood donors was comparable to that found in
Europe, USA and Taiwan. We recommend that the low prevalence of anti-HCV in some
of our high risk groups should not lead to complacence and hence further studies
are necessary to evaluate the infectivity of anti-HCV positive patients and the
potential for cross infection.
PMID: 7498004 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]