Detection of secondary syphilis among blood donors and evaluation of gamma interferon levels

Abstract

Background. Syphilis is one of the important blood transfusion disease that has 3 stages and characterized by latency phase. The goal of this study is detection of demographic categories related to syphilis and cell-mediated immunity in denotation of gamma interferon. Methods. The study was done in the main blood bank in Thi-Qar province-Iraq during the period from January 2020 to December 2021, the demographic data including age, gender, address and occupation. The infection was diagnosed by using TPHA technique, while gamma interferon concentration was detected by ELISA technique according to the manufacturer instruction. Results. The study record low level of syphilis (0.5438%) among blood donors, high significant differences in the parameters of study, the age group 31-40 revealed high percent of infection (44%) and high percent of infection occur in male (99.7%). Also, high significant differences were recorded in distribution of infected donors according to occupation, where gainers (72.5%) represent the most infected group than others and the blood donors that inhabits urban area (70.19%) were most exposed to syphilis infections than those in rural areas. The IFN-γ level was high significance in the infected donors (19.651±9.009) when compared with the controls under (p value= 0.000). Conclusion. In brief, syphilis has low prevalence among blood donors in Iraqi community, with significant differences among categories of demographic data. The study revealed strong cell-mediated immune response in infected blood donors characterized by high levels of gamma interferon.

Keywords

• secondary syphilis
• risk factors
• blood safety
• gamma interferon
• blood donors