Abdulrahman Y. Al-Haifi*, Abdualdaim Mohammed Mukred

Background: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is highly infection prevalent among patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD) and constitutes the major threat that challenges the health system in developing countries. The main objective: is to find out the prevalence rate of HCV infection and risk factors among patients attending the dialysis centers in AL-Thawrah General Hospital and AL-Gumhouri Teaching Hospital in Sana’a city, Yemen. Method: A cross-sectional assessment of hemodialysis patients. Three hundred and eighty-four (384) serum specimens were collected from HD patients from 4th February 2023 to 7th February 2023. Also, the data concerning risk factors were collected by using a designed questionnaire. The collected specimens were screened for HCV antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) techniques. Results: the overall prevalence of HCV, was (21.4%) recorded in this study. The highest infection was reported in AL-Thawrah General Hospital, and generally the highest infection was reported in patients aged >40 years (P=0.05), females 25% (P=0.04), non-educated 24.7%, single 26.4%, urban 21.9%, duration of dialysis >one year 26.9% (P=0.01), have no history of surgery 22.4%, blood transfusion 25.1% (P=0.01), and those attending multicenter 26.9% (P=0.03). It can be concluded that the high prevalence of hepatitis infections among HD patients in Yemen represents a serious community health problem to become a nosocomial infection in dialysis units. So, strict adherence to proper and effective procedures for infection control may be reduced and prevented the prevalence of hepatitis infections. Conclusion: HCV is very common infection in hemodialysis patients and prevalence of infection is high in those patients compared to general population, prevalence rate of HCV infection varies between different hemodialysis centers; the highest prevalence rate of HCV infection was found in AL-Thawrah General Hospital, while the low prevalence rate was found in AL-Gumhouri Teaching Hospital, risk factors contributing to high HCV infection rates include (Age, Sex, duration of dialysis, blood transfusion and attending multi dialysis center), and there is no statistical significant association between HCV infection and risk factor include (education status, Residence, Marital status and History of surgery) in Sana'a city, Yemen.