Prevalence of Hepatitis c Virus Infection Among Rheumatological Patients
Prevalence of Hepatitis c Virus Infection Among Rheumatological Patients
Egypt has the highest prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the world. In 2015, the
 prevalence of HCV RNA was found to be 7.0%.(1) The prevalence of HCV was studied in
 Rheumatoid arthritis in few studies(2,3), but to our knowledge, no previous work studied it
 in other rheumatologic diseases.
Egypt has the highest prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the world. In 2015, the
 prevalence of HCV RNA was found to be 7.0%.(1) The prevalence of HCV was studied in
 Rheumatoid arthritis in few studies(2,3), but to our knowledge, no previous work studied it
 in other rheumatologic diseases.

 This study aims at detecting the prevalence of subclinical HCV infection in different
 rheumatologic disease groups in Egypt.

 Consecutive patients with different rheumatologic diseases from seven- geographically
 different- rheumatology departments were prospectively studied. None of the patients was
 known to have previous HCV infection. Patients' serum samples were screened for the presence
 of anti-HCV antibodies. Patients with positive serology were further evaluated for the
 presence of HCV ribonucleic acid by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Consecutive patients with different rheumatologic diseases from seven- geographically
 different- rheumatology departments were prospectively studied. None of the patients
 was known to have previous HCV infection

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  pregnancy and end organ failure