Evaluation of anti-hepatitis E virus antibody among hemodialysis patients in Gorgan, north of Iran

Background and Aims: Hepatitis E virus is a public health concern and about a third of people in the world live in endemic areas. Although HEV is believed to be transmitted by fecal-oral routes between humans in low sanitary conditions, but evidence of transmission have been reported in hemodialysis (HD) patients. Materials and Methods: The aim of present study was to determine the prevalence of anti- HEV antibody among HD patients in Gorgan, north of Iran. In this cross-sectional study, totally 300 HD patients from May to December 2014 were tested for detection of anti-HEV IgG and IgM by commercial HEV enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. Demographic variables were collected in pre-designed questionnaires. Results: Out of 300 individuals, 148 (49.3%) were male and 152 (50.7%) were female. The overall anti-HEV IgG seroprevalence rate was 4%. Result showed significant association between anti-HEV IgG and duration of dialysis (p = 0.03), but there were no significant differences between the subjects grouped according to gender, Ethnicity, dialysis per week and age. No anti-HEV IgM were detected in patients. Conclusions: Since our finding showed statically significant relationship between duration of hemodialysis and anti-HEV. Therefore, hemodialysis maybe be considered as a risk factor in HEV transmission. However further studies are needed to confirm our data.