New Oral Direct-Acting Antiviral Agents for Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis-C Infection in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease Including Dialysis Patients and Kidney Transplant Recipients

As in the general population, the prevalence of HCV in CKD Stage 5D patients varies worldwide, ranging from as low as 1% to as high as over 70%.Overall, the current prevalence of HCV is below 5% in most of Northern Europe, around 10% in most of Southern Europe and the US, between 10 to 50% and up to 70% in many parts of the developing world, including many Asian, Latin American, and North African countries [5][6][7][8][9].Not surprisingly, the prevalence of HCV infection in CKD transplant patients is also high.Consistent risk factors include the total time spent on dialysis, a history of and/or the number of blood transfusions and transmission by kidney grafts.The prevalence in a given population of CKD transplant patients parallels the prevalence in the general population of the same country or region.Recent population-based estimates of the prevalence of HCV infection in CKD transplant patients are not available [4].Even less is known of the prevalence of HCV in the various stages of CKD before dialysis or transplantation.It is, however, apparent from several case series-admittedly relatively small-sizedthat patients with CKD Stages 3-5 have a disproportionately high prevalence of HCV infection compared with the general population [4].