Kasmera (Jun 2007)
Prevalence of Blood-Transmitted Infectious Diseases in Donors at the University Hospital “Antonio Patricio de Alcalá” Blood Bank in Cumaná, State of Sucre
Abstract
Three-hundred fifty-six blood samples from apparently healthy donors at the University Hospital “Antonio Patricio de Alcalá” Blood Bank in Cumaná, Sucre, were evaluated for the prevalence of several blood-transmitted diseases. The presence of antibodies against the core (anti-HBc) and surface antigen (HBsAg) of the hepatitis B virus, the hepatitis C virus (HCV), the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Trypanosoma cruzi was determined using ELISA. In addition, tests for non-treponemic antibodies against syphilis and antibodies against Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax antigens were also carried out. From the total number of patients, 84 (23. 6%) were positive for one or more markers, distributed as follows: 41(11. 52%) reactive for Anti-HBc, 9 (2.53%) for HBsAg, 2 (0. 56%) for HCV, 1 (0. 28%) for T. cruzi and 31 (8.71%) for VDRL. No positive cases for HIV and Plasmodium were observed. These results demonstrate that the population studied could be classified as high risk for transmitting the HBV, without excluding other pathologies whose diagnosis is also important in order to avoid the risk of propagating infections.
