Background: Prevalence of hepatitis C in hemodialysis patients is more than general population. Periodic screening of HCV in dialysis is necessary for control this disease. Aim of this study is evaluation of HCV infection in Yazd province hemodialysis patients.

Methods : In this cross sectional study, to milliliter blood sample has been taken from each 188 hemodialysis patients. Third generation enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELIZA) and real time polymerase chain reaction (RT_PCR) methods were carried out for each patient for detecting HCV Ab and HCV genome. Demographic and clinical characteristic of patients were collected and data was analyzed with Fischer's exact test and Mann_ Whitney U test in SPSS software V.19.

Results: HCV Ab was positive in 12 patients. Eight cases had history of blood transfusion and 4 cases had history of kidney transplantation. Anyone hadn’t history of skin tattooing or intravenous drug usage. HCV RNA was positive in 4 cases and was negative in 8 ones of patients with positive HCV Ab.

Conclusion: HCV prevalence using ELIZA and RT_ PCR tests among hemodialysis patients in Yazd province of Iran is 6.3% and 2.1% respectively. Risk factors are hemodialysis duration (P<0.005) and kidney transplantation (P=0.005)