Abstract:
Hepatitis E virus is etiological agent of acute hepatitis, it is a non enveloped, positive sense, single stranded RNA virus.
This was case control study aimed to determine the frequency of HEV antibodies (IgG) among haemodialysis patients at East Nile Hospital – Khartoum , compared with healthy population .
A total of 90 participants, 45 haemodialysis patients (as cases) and 45 healthy individuals (as control ) were enrolled in this study during the period from October 2016 to February 2017 .
Data was collected by direct interviewing questionnaire and ethical approval was obtained from Sudan University of Science and Technology.
Blood specimens were collected and serum was obtained then analyzed for Anti HEV IgG by ELISA technique.
The overall results revealed that 26(57.8%) and 16(35.6%) were positive for HEV IgG among haemodialysis and healthy group respectively.
Statistical analysis showed insignificant difference between case and control with HEV and also between HEV and age and gender ( P value >0.05).
This study indicated that chronic haemodialysis is not associated with an increased risk of exposure to HEV, and there is no statistical association between HEV infection and age and gender.
The results emphasize the need to initiate more studies on the prevalence of HEV among haemodialysis patients in other parts of Sudan , and in large sample size to validate these results.
