Publication:

Seroprevalence of hepatitis b in healthy blood donors at a teaching hospital of Kashmir (skims medical college and hospital Bemina, Srinagar): a restrospective study of five years

Background The study was conducted at the blood bank of the hospital. It was a retrospective analysis of blood donors over a period of five years from April 2008 to March 2013.

Methods 5ml blood sample was collected from the blood bag of each donor. 2ml blood was kept for testing hepatitis B. Bioelisa HBsAg color (a 3rd generation ELISA kit) was used for the screening of donor blood for Hepatitis B. All reactive samples were tested again using the same ELISA kit. Samples showing repeat test reactivity on both methods were considered positive and were included for calculation of seroprevalence. Chi-square test was used to calculate the significance of difference between the groups.

Results Total numbers of donors were 4880. Out of them, only 17 were Seropositive (Prevalence of 0.35% i.e. Low prevalence).

Conclusions Kashmir region is one of the few regions from India where seroprevalence of HBsAg is low.