Rukmini Sudhakar
BACKGROUND
Blood transfusion is an effective mode of transmission of hepatitis C infection. Hepatitis C is an emerging infection in India, which was detected in 1989. US and Japan started screening for HCV in 1990, which was mandatory and in India in 2002. Despite testing of blood units, HCV infection is still a significant problem. HCV is transmitted through blood and its components.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The present study was conducted to detect hepatitis C in blood donors (voluntary and replacement donors) for two years and screening done by ELISA (3rd generation UBIR, HCV EIA.4-0 kit).
RESULTS
Seroprevalence of anti-HCV in 14,727 donors was 0.33%. Coinfection with HCV was observed in 3 donors of HBsAg and 1 donor of HIV seropositivity. Large number of donors were from urban areas (66.66%) and seropositivity among them was 0.36% and from the rural areas (33.34%) with seropositivity of 0.15%.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the present study has established the prevalence of HCV antibody in healthy donors was 0.29% in our area (Davangere). This proves that compulsory screening for HCV lowers the incidence of Post Transfusion Hepatitis (PTH).
