Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2017; 23(1): 151-166
Published online Jan 7, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i1.151
Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection among hemodialysis patients in the Middle-East: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Soheil Ashkani-Esfahani, Seyed Moayed Alavian, Mohammad Salehi-Marzijarani
Soheil Ashkani-Esfahani, Seyed Moayed Alavian, Mohammad Salehi-Marzijarani, Baqiyatallah Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 14155-3651, Iran
Soheil Ashkani-Esfahani, Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz 71348-45794, Iran
Mohammad Salehi-Marzijarani, Department of Biostatistics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz 71348-45794, Iran
Author contributions: Alavian SM designed research; Ashkani-Esfahani S performed research and gathered data; Salehi-Marzijarani M analyzed data and designed charts and tables; Ashkani-Esfahani S and Alavian SM wrote and edited the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Seyed Moayed Alavian, MD, Professor of Gastroenterology, Baqiyatallah Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 14155-3651, Iran. soashkani@gmail.com
Telephone: +98-218126407 Fax: +98-2181264070
Received: September 28, 2016
Peer-review started: September 29, 2016
First decision: October 20, 2016
Revised: November 3, 2016
Accepted: December 16, 2016
Article in press: December 19, 2016
Published online: January 7, 2017
Processing time: 98 Days and 19.7 Hours
Abstract
AIM

To determine hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection prevalence in each country of the Middle-East and the overall prevalence of the region.

METHODS

In this systematic review, we gathered all documents related to HCV infection prevalence among hemodialysis patients in 17 middle-east countries from April 2006 to March 2016. We selected only cross-sectional studies that had proper sampling and measurement methods as well as a valid statistical analysis.

RESULTS

After screening of 7311 documents, 56 studies were selected reporting the prevalence of HCV infection among hemodialysis patients from 10 countries of the region. Seven countries including United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Israel, and Cyprus did not have any relevant document; thus, their latest reports were just mentioned. We performed the meta-analysis and determined the prevalence rates for each country as well as the whole region. The overall HCV infection prevalence among hemodialysis patients in the region was reported to be 25.3%; Egypt and Syria had the highest reported rates while Iran and Lebanon had the lowest. Further investigations are still needed to provide more reliable databases, find main risk factors, and to improve diagnosis and treatment plans, particularly in higher prevalent countries.

CONCLUSION

Controlling the prevalence and improving the management methods of HCV infection among hemodialysis patients are of a great concern in the Middle-East region.

Keywords: Hepatitis C; Hemodialysis; Prevalence; Middle-East; Meta-Analysis; Review

Core tip: This paper is a systematic review and meta-analysis of the reports published from April 2006 to March 2016 on the prevalence of hepatitis C infection among 17 countries of the Middle-East region including: Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Egypt, Cyprus, Qatar, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Israel, and Kuwait.