Effectiveness of mandatory transmissible diseases screening in Indian blood donors.

This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of transfusion transmitted diseases (TTDs) among local blood donors the safety offered by the four mandatory tests (for HIV HBsAg syphilis and malaria) and to assess alanine aminotransferase (ALT) as a surrogate test. A total of 313 blood donors were tested for HBsAg hepatitis B core (HBc) antibody hepatitis C (HCV) antibody HIV antibody and IgM antibody to cytomegalovirus (CMV-IgM). The serum alanine aminotransferase levels were also done on each unit of blood. The prevalence of various markers was 7 (2.2%) for HBsAg 57 (18.2%) for anti HBc (total) 1 (0.3%) for anti HCV 16 (5.1%) for anti CMV. None of the donors were positive for HIV VDRL or malaria. ALT level was raised in 16.5% of donors and showed no correlation with hepatitis markers. ALT was not found to be useful as a surrogate marker for routine screening of donors. Sensitive tests like ELISA and immunofluorescence for malaria antigen should be applied for screening of malaria. VDRL test may be used to detect high risk donors rather than detection of syphilis when stored blood is used. HBsAg and HIV tests should be routinely done on every unit of blood and anti HCV tests should be done regularly if possible. (authors)