Background and Aim: Hemophilic patients are at risk of several blood born diseases such as viral hepatitis (A, B, C), HIV infection due to several transfusion events during their life. This study was performed to evaluate the prevalence of HCV infection and related viremia in hemophilic patients in our region. Materials and Methods: 80 out of 400 hemophilic patients, registered in Khorasan hemophilia Society were evaluated. The case studies were selected randomly. The second generation of ELISA kit was used for evaluating anti HCV in serum. The positive ELISA results were confirmed using Western Blot method. Viremia was evaluated using RT-PCR method in anti HCV positive patients. Results:Our results showed that 44 (55%) out of 80 were anti HCV positive, 25(56%) of whom, had viremia. Our results showed a significant relation between HCV infection with kind of hemophilia (P=0.044) and it's severity (P=0.033). Conclusion: As the prevalence of HCV infection in our study group was high, screening of all hemophilic patients for HCV infection is recommended. Based on the results, the evaluation of viremia in HCV infected patients is advised too.

Keywords: Hepatitis C – HCV – Hemophilia – Khorasan – RT-PCR

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