Neha Kathpal1, Surekha B. Hippargi2, Ankur Kumar3
BACKGROUND Blood transfusion carries the potential risk of transfusion transmissible infections (TTIs) making it the most dreaded complication of blood transfusion. The objective was to study the trends in seroprevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV, Syphilis and Malaria amongst the blood donors. METHODS Study was done over a period of 5 years. Blood donors’ data was collected from the blood bank of our institution. Serum samples were tested for HIV-antibody, HCV-antibody and HBsAg using ELISA and Malarial parasite antigen and syphilitic anticardiolipin antibodies by rapid diagnostic tests (RDT). RESULTS During the study, a total of 20584 blood donors were screened, out of which 369 blood units were found to be seropositive accounting for a seroprevalence of 1.8%. Seroprevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV, Syphilis and Malaria were 0.20%, 1.34%, 0.22%, 0.06% and 0% respectively. Out of total screened donors, voluntary donors were 79.4% and remaining 20.6% were replacement donors. An overall decreasing trend was noted in seroprevalence of TTIs over the past five years (p<0.05). Individually, HIV and HCV which showed statistically significant decreasing trend (p<0.05) while HBV continued to show higher seroprevalence. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of TTIs has decreased considerably after mandatory testing of blood Units for TTIs. Strict guidelines and their implementation for donor selection and their screening using sensitive tests is the need of the hour in order to reduce the incidence of TTIs.
