Publication:

The incidence and spectrum of transfusion transmitted infections among the blood donors

Background Transfusion Transmitted Infections (TTIs), particularly through the viruses lead to the major health problems and challenges faced by the transfusion services for the supply of safe blood and blood components. The objective of the study is to assess the incidence and spectrum of five TTIs like Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Malaria Parasites (MP) and Syphilis among both voluntary and replacement blood donors in a span of seven years.

Methods Total 1, 38,994 voluntary and replacement blood donors were screened and 1,012 (0.73%) cases were seropositive of which 631 cases (0.64%) were found in voluntary donors and 381 cases (0.94%) were seen in replacement donors.

Results Majority of the donors were reactive for HBV infection (0.5%) followed by HCV (0.17%), HIV (0.052%), Syphilis (0.001%) and malaria (0.0005%). There was increase in the trend of seroprevalence of TTIs from 0.35% (2010) to 1.43% (2016) over the period which is a matter of consideration.

Conclusions It is therefore very important to continue preventive measures to combat this problem along with screening of donated blood units with highly sensitive test methods and post donation counselling of the seropositive donors for the prevention of further transmission risks.