SEROPREVALENCE OF HEPATITIS B, HEPATITIS C AND HIV IN HEALTHY BLOOD DONORS - A RETROSPECTIVE TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL BASED STUDY IN KASHMIR, NORTH INDIA.
Waseem Raja*, Rohey Jan, Abid Hussain Mir, P. A. Shah, M. Maqbool and F. A. Wani
ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the prevalence of HBV, HCV and HIV infection in voluntary blood donors in SMHS hospital Kashmir - North india, during 2011-2013. Material and methods: A Retrospective, descriptive and analytic study was conducted at Blood transfusion centre, Department of Medicine -Government Medical College Srinagar, in which data were obtained from the Blood Bank Registry of SMHS hospital. The total number of 3650 healthy blood donors were screened for detection of HBsAg, anti-HCV and anti-HIV markers in blood samples using 3rd generation ELISA Kits and Western blotting. Results; Out of 3650 donars, only 21 (0.57%) were HBsAg positive, 28 (0.76%) were Anti HCV positive, and 3 (0.08) were HIV positive. One male donors was co-infected by HCV and HBV. The majority of HBsAg + donars (17/21 ) were in the age group of 18 to 35 years, and most of Anti HCV positives (14/28) were in age group of 36-45 followed by (7/28) in age group of 26-35 years. but this was not statistically significant ( p value =0.95). Majority of serology positive blood donors were males. 12/21 HBsAg + donars and 16/28 Anti HCV + donars were of low socioeconomic status, & this difference was statistically significant with p value of < 0.001. Conclusion: This study suggests the need to investigate risk factors and risk groups for these infections and provides direction for setting new goals in developing preventive strategies in transfusion transmitted infections.It also provide a means for reviewing an outcome of the preventive measures which are already in place and in the light of these results, an effective control and training program should be implemented.
Keywords: Blood donors, Hepatitis B virus, Hepatitis C virus.
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