Seroprevalence and geographical distribution of hepatitis C virus in Iranian patients with thalassemia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Abstract Background Thalassemia as a hereditary hemoglobinopathy is the most common monogenic disease worldwide. Patients with thalassemia require regular blood transfusion, which provides the risk for the transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV) as the most common post-transfusion infection in such patients, and this rate is very diverse in different parts of the world. We aimed to determine the prevalence of HCV among patients with thalassemia in Iran. Methods In this study, we searched for articles on the prevalence of HCV among Iranian thalassemia patients in English and Persian databases up to 2017. Heterogeneities were assessed by using an I-square (I2) test. Prevalence and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using the random effects model. Results In total, 37 studies with 9185 patients were included in the meta-analysis. The prevalence of HCV among Iranian thalassemia patients was 17.0% (95% CI: 14.5–19.8). The rate of prevalence among male and female subjects was 17.4% (95% CI: 13.8–21.9) and 16.8% (95% CI: 13.2–21.1), respectively. Conclusions We found that the prevalence of HCV among Iranian thalassemia patients declined over time and the Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization has had a reasonable performance in HCV screening.