Factors Affecting the Transmission epatitis C Among the Thalassemic Patients in Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf governorate

Background: Because thalassemic patients require multiple blood transfusions, and blood transfusion is a common transmission vector for hepatitis C virus, numerous studies have found varying prevalences of hepatitis C among -thalassemia major patients. As a result, this study was carried out to discover anti-HCV in thalassemia patients in our location. Objectives: to find factors that increase the chance of getting infection with HCV in thalassemia patients. Materials and methods: A total of 550 patients whose registered in thalassemic center were surveyed, 48 of them had HCV infection. Name, age, sex, residency, age at starting blood transfusion, Frequency of blood transfusion per month, Splenectomized or not, blood group for patients, test for HCV antibodies and liver function test. Results: The total number surveyed was 550, where the number of males was 330, while the number of females was 220. The study group comprised 48 thalassemic patients (33 [68.75%] males and 15 [31.25%] females). The mean ± SD age was 18.4 ± 7.57months (range: 2 – 35).  There is direct association between the age and the seropositivity to anti –HCV where HCV seropositivity was significantly associated with an older age (P ≤ 0.01). There is no association between gender and seropositivity to anti –HCV where there are no significant differences (P= 0.653) Out of 48 patients 26(54.14%) were live in urban, 22(45.17%) in rural. In regard to residency there is no direct relationship (P ≤ 0.01) between the residency and the seropositivity to anti –HCV. There is high significant (P ≤ 0.01) between frequency of blood transfusion per month and seropositivity to anti –HCV. HCV seropositivity was significantly associated with the longer duration of the disease (P ≤ 0.01). Patients of O+ blood group represented the higher (P ≤ 0.01) seropositivity to anti -HCV than patients with other blood groups, however patients with Rh- shows lower seropositivity to anti -HCV. Our study shows that there is highly significant (P ≤ 0.01) relation between splenectomy and the seropositivity to anti –HCV.