HCV Viral Load and Its Association with Demographic Factors among HCV Viremic Volunteered Iranian Blood Donors

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) as a blood borne virus is one of the main concerns of blood transfusion services and the major cause of liver diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the HCV viral load and its association with demographic characteristics among HCV viremic volunteered Iranian blood donors Methods: In this analytical cross sectional study, 161 HCV RNA positive blood donors who came back to the Iranian blood transfusion centers over the country during 2015 - 2017 were included. Subjects were interviewed for demographic. HCV viral loads were determined by an in-house one step Taq Man Real Time RT-PCR assay. STATA software version 13 was used for statistical analysis.Results: The mean age was 37.78 ± 8.52 years. The most of subjects were male, 158 out of 161 (98.14%). The mean viral load was 1.06 × 106 ± 3.02× 105 IU/ml. The majority of subjects had HCV viral load ≤ 106 IU/ml (82.61%). No associations were found between demographic characteristics and HCV viral load. Discussion: Relatively low HCV viral loads were observed among Iranian blood donors. Our results may provide new perception into HCV transmission.

کلیدواژه ها:

Blood donors ، Hepatitis C ، Viral load ، Iran