Magnitude of asymptomatic hepatitis B virus surface antigen carrier state in voluntary blood donors: Predonation screening and gender considerations

Abstract

Context: Safety of blood transfusion. Aims: The study was conducted to assess the overall prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in blood donors (BDs), to know the gender differences in prevalence and to understand the implications. Settings and Design: Blood bank of a tertiary care hospital. Observational study. Materials and Methods: Data of 17,976 voluntary BDs who donated blood between January 2006 and December 2012 was evaluated. Fresh serum samples of all BDs were screened for HBsAg using HEPALISA (3 rd generation ELISA method, manufactured by J. Mitra & Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India). Statistical Analysis Used: Statistical analysis was performed using the Chi-square test, df and P value. Results: Totally 17,976 BDs were studied, of which 16,972 (94.4%) were males and 1,004 (5.6%) were females. The male to female ratio was 16.8:1. Among HBsAg-positive BDs, 230 (98.7%) were males and 3(1.3%) were females. The HBsAg prevalence was - overall 1.3%, males - 1.3%, females - 0.29%. The difference in prevalence of HBsAg in males and females was statistically significant (χ2 = 8.29, df = 1, P = −0.004). The rate of HBsAg positivity showed a slight decline over last 5 years. Conclusions: The study region has a low prevalence for HBsAg. Low prevalence in women makes them better donors; hence they could be encouraged to donate blood voluntarily. Increase in proportion of women in BDs can minimize transmission of hepatitis B virus by transfusion.

Keywords

• Blood donors
• hepatitis B surface antigen
• women donors