Seroprevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Hepatitis B Virus, Hepatitis C Virus, and Syphilis in Blood Donors at District Level Blood Bank in a Teaching Hospital, Mandya, Karnataka

Introduction: Blood transfusion although saving millions of people worldwide each year, transfusion transmitted infections (TTI) posing a great problem in developing countries such as India. With every unit of blood, there is 1% chance of transfusionassociated problems including transfusion-transmitted diseases. Viral infections cause the major part of mortality and morbidity in blood recipients. According to WHO estimate, the lack of effective screening of blood donors results in up to 16 million new infections with hepatitis B virus (HBV), 5 million new infections with hepatitis C virus (HCV), and 160,000 new cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections every year. Screening of the blood donors is, therefore, very essential in preventing TTI’s. Purpose: Study aims to know the prevalence of serological markers for HIV, HBV, HCV, and Syphilis among the voluntary and replacement blood donors. Furthermore, to know the high risk age group among the blood donors infected with TTI and their sex distribution. Materials and Methods: After obtaining written consent, all the blood samples collected from donors with sterile aseptic precautions. Blood samples were screened for HIV, HBV, HCV by ELISA, and for syphilis by rapid plasma regain test. All the positive samples were retested by rapid Card method. Any sample found to be positive was discarded. Results: Out of total 14520 blood donors, 12432 (85.6%) were voluntary donors and 2088 (14.4%) were replacement donors. A total of 212 samples found to be positive for TTI. Study demonstrated prevalence of HBV infections as 1.06%, followed by HIV as 0.2%, HCV infections as 0.14%, and Syphilis as 0.05%. Conclusion: The study demonstrated overall seroprevalence of TTI to be low, i.e. 1.4%.