Transfusion Transmitted Infections among Blood Donors at a Tertiary Care Hospital Blood Bank in Kumaon Region, Uttarakhand, India

Abstract

Introduction: Blood transfusion is one of the most important and integral intervention of the modern medicine but, simultaneously it carries the solemn risk of transmitting various life-threatening Transfusion-Transmissible Infectious (TTI) agents. Aim: To study the serological profile of voluntary blood donors in a blood bank of tertiary healthcare centre in Kumaon region, Uttarakhand, India. Materials and Methods: A hospital based prospective study was conducted from September 2018-September 2020. All the potential blood donors coming to the Department of Pathology and Blood Bank were included and after obtaining informed consent from the donor, venous blood was collected. Samples were tested for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), syphilis, and malarial parasite. The data was collected and tabulated in Microsoft Excel sheet and was analysed by calculating frequency and percentages. Results: A total of 8874 donors were screened during the study period; of these 5.66% (503/8874) were found to be seropositive. Seroprevalence of HBV, HCV, HIV, syphilis and malaria was 1.87% (166/8874), 3.23% (287/8874), 0.15% (14/8874), 0.40% (35/8874) and 0.01% (01/8874) respectively. Highest prevalence of TTI (55.06%; 277/503) was within the age group of 18-28 years. Maximum seroreactivity was seen in blood group- B positive (32.60%; 164/503) followed by A positive (25.84%; 130/503). Conclusion: Although, there has been a down-swing in the prevalence of TTI’s but, there is still need for improvement in the quality of transfusion medicine services and implementation of strict donor criteria to further minimise the risk of TTI’s.

Keywords

• hepatitis b virus
• hepatitis c virus
• human immunodeficiency virus
• malaria
• seropositive
• syphilis
• transmissible infections