SEN virus infection in patients on maintenance hemodialysis in eastern Taiwan

Objective: Patients on maintenance hemodialysis have a higher risk of viral hepatitis infection and this study investigates the prevalence of SENV-D and SENV-H viremia among hemodialysis patients in eastern Taiwan. Patients and Methods: Serum samples were obtained from 119 patients attending a hemodialysis center in eastern Taiwan, and from 43 patients undergoing health examinations. These were tested for SENV-D and SENV-H viremia using polymerase chain reaction. Results: The occurrence of blood transfusion (p<0.0001), the frequency of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection (p=0.001), and serum AST level (p=0.049) were significantly higher among hemodialysis patients. The prevalence rates of SENV (D and/or H) viremia, SENV-D viremia, SENV-H viremia were lower in hemodialysis patients than in control group (10.9% vs 32.6%; 4.2% vs 16.3%; 7.6% vs 23.4%, respectively). Only one SENV-D (+) hemodialysis patient was coinfected with HCV. No SENV-H (+) patients was positive for anti-HCV among the hemodialysis patients (p=0.047). There was no statistically significant association between SENV infection and age of recruitment, gender, transfusion history, AST level, ALT level or hepatitis B surface antigenemia among the hemodialysis patients. Conclusion: These results indicate that SENV infection is a common viral infection in healthy individuals, but, unexpectedly, the frequency of infection among hemodialysis patients in eastern Taiwan was significantly lower than the frequency among healthy individuals. Further studies are therefore needed to resolve this dichotomy.