Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in a cohort of Egyptian patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

HCV is one of the main problems facing the Egyptian healthcare system. Egypt probably has the highest HCV prevalence in the world, estimated to be 15% in some studies. The 2008 Egyptian Demographic Health Survey (EDHS 2008) estimated that the prevalence of HCV antibodies was 14.7%. In 2015, The Egyptian Health Issues Survey (EHIS 2015) was done to re-estimate the prevalence of HCV infection in Egypt. The prevalence of HCV antibodies in the 15-59 years age group dropped to 10%. Despite this unique HCV epidemic, few studies were done to estimate the prevalence of HCV in patients with RA in Egypt. The aim of the current study was to estimate this prevalence. Three hundred patients (older than 18 years) diagnosed with RA according to the ACR/EULAR 2010 criteria were tested for HCV antibodies by ELISA, and those with positive results were tested for HCV RNA by RT-PCR. The prevalence of HCV antibodies in our studied RA patients was 15%. This high prevalence may be explained by increased exposure to HCV transmission, especially through the iatrogenic route. This prevalence is nearly equal to HCV prevalence in the Egyptian general population estimated in EDHS 2008 (14.7%), but it is higher than the prevalence in the EHIS 2015 (10%).