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Occult hepatitis C virus infection among Egyptian hemodialysis patients

Occult hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection (OCI) was reported in an apparently disease‐free state in the absence of liver disease, anti‐HCV and HCV‐RNA in the serum. The existing data examining the clinical significance of OCI and its potential as a source of HCV infection among hemodialysis patients are very limited. We examined the presence of OCI among patients on maintenance hemodialysis at Minia Governorate, Egypt; an HCV endemic country. A total of 81 subjects with negative markers for HCV were enrolled. HCV‐RNA was tested in PBMCs by real‐time PCR. For the 81 subjects, the average dialysis duration was 32.7 ± 21.7 months and the average ALT level (±SD) was 26 ± 12 U/L while that of AST was 29 ± 16 U/L. Out of the 81 subjects, three (3.7%) were HCV‐RNA positive in PBMCs in the absence of serum anti‐HCV and HCV‐RNA indicating OCI. The viral load of the OCI subjects ranged from 172 to 4150 IU/ml. History of liver disease was positive in one of the three positive patients. These results highlight the potential risk of HCV transmission from patients within hemodialysis units in Egypt. J. Med. Virol. 88:1388–1393, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.