Background: Safe blood transfusion is of utmost importance as an unsafe blood transfusion bears lot of burden on human life and economy. Transfusion-transmissible infectious agents such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and syphilis are among the greatest threats to blood safety for the recipient. To assess the magnitude and dynamics of disease transmission and for its prevention and control, the study of its seroprevalence is important. O The present study was carried out with an aim to assess the trend and seroprevalence of transfusion transmitted infections (TTIs) among blood donors at our blood bank.

Materials & Methods: All voluntary donors reporting to the blood bank were screened for HBsAg, Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), HIV and Syphilis by using the appropriate enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) was tested for surface antigen (HBsAg) and HCV by the immunechromatographic method. The study was designed for duration of one year between January 2017 to December 2017. Medical reports of the donors were accessed from the hospital records and analyzed.

Results: A total of 2471 blood donors were screened during a period of 1.5 years (January 2017 to Dec 2017) at blood bank of our hospital. Among them, 882 (35.7%) were voluntary and 1589 (64.3%) were replacement donors. The overall seroprevalence of HBV and HCV was 28 (1.13%) and 5 (0.20%) respectively. The percentage of HBs Ag seropositivity was 1.2% (25/2091) in males and 0.79% (3/380) in females. The highest prevalence of HBs Ag seropositive 15 /28 (53.57%) was within the age group 18-30 years, followed by 11 (39.29%) within the age group 31-40 years. The percentage of anti-HCV seropositivity was 0.19% (4/2091) in males and 0.26% (1/380) in females.

Conclusion: Voluntary blood donation and diligent donor selection are important to increase blood safety and avoid transmission of infectious diseases through blood transfusion. Strict measures in donor screening including better donor recruitment, promoting voluntary blood donation, screening of blood and blood products using high sensitivity serological assays, other infectious diseases markers would considerably improve the current screening procedure for blood donation and enhance the safety of the blood intended for transfusion.

Keywords: Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBs Ag), Anti-HCV, Seroprevalence, Transfusion transmitted infections, Blood donors.

1. Glynn SA, Kleinman SH, Schreiber GB, Busch MP, Wright DJ, Smith JW, et al. Trends in incidence and prevalence of major transfusion transmissible viral infection in the United States blood donors, 1991 to 1996. JAMA. 2000; 284:229-35.

1. Pathak S, Chandrashekhar M. (2010) Nucleic acid testing: redefining security in blood screening Available: http:// www.maxhealthcare.in/ maxmedical-journal/september2010/nucleic acid testing.html. Accessed on 20-02-2018.
2. Yashovardhan A, Sreedhar Babu KV, Jothi Bai DS. Trend of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg) among blood donors at the blood bank of a tertiary care referral teaching hospital in southern India. Int J Res Med Sci 2015; 3:1686-90.
3. Shaikh M, Bhople KS. Seroprevalence of Transfusion Transmitted infections in blood donors at a rural based tertiary care teaching hospital in India. IOSR Journal of Dental and Medical Sciences 2015; 14(10): 29-32.

5. WHO guidelines on hepatitis B and C testing. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2017. Available at http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/254621/9789241549981-eng.pdf;jsessionid=CCA6635344EDA9E311C458E2CD54B59C?sequence=1. Accessed on 20-02-2018.
6. Datta S. An overview of molecular epidemiology of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in India. Virol J. 2008; 5:156–67.
7. WHO guidelines on Screening donated blood for transfusion transmissible infections. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2010. Available at http://www.who.int/bloodsafety/ScreeningTTI.pdf/ Accessed on 20-02-2018.
8. Blood safety and availability. Fact sheet. World Health Organization. Available at http://www.who. int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs279/en/ Accessed on 20-02-2018.
9. Regulatory requirements of blood and/or its components including blood products Central Drug Standard Control Organisation Government of India. Available at: http:// www.cdsco.nic.in/writereaddata/guidelines_for_blood_ bank.doc Accessed on 03-02-2018.
10. Bhattacharya P, Chandra PK, Dutta S, et al. Significant increase in HBV, HCV, HIV and Syphilis infections among blood donors in West Bengal, Eastern India 2004- 2005: Exploratory screening reveals high frequency of occult HBV infection. World J Gastroenterol 2007; 13:3730-3.
11. Thakral B, Marwaha N, Chawla YK, et al Prevalence & Significance of hepatitis C virus (HCV) Seropositivity in blood donors. Indian J Med Res 2006;124:431-8.
12. Nancy Singh. NAT: Safe Blood, Safe India. Available from: http://www.expresshealthcare.in/200810/knowledge02.shtml. Accessed on 20-02-2018.
13. Stokx J, Gillet P, Weggheleire A D, Casas E C, Maendaenda R, Beulane AJ, et al. 2011. Seroprevalence of transfusion transmissible infections and evaluation of the pre-donation screening performance at the Provincial Hospital of Tete, Mozambique. BMC Infectious Diseases 11, 141-148.

1. Chattoraj A, Bhel R, Kataria V. Infectious disease markers in blood donors. Med J Armed Forces India. 2008;64(1):33–5.

15. Yadav BS, Varma AV, Singh P, Kumar R, Bandi PK. Seroprevalence of Transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs) in blood donors: A study from Central India. Int J Med Sci Public Health 2016; 5(6): 1-5.
16. Arora D, Arora B, Khetarpal A. Seroprevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV and syphilis in blood donors in Southern Haryana. Indian J Pathol Microbiol 2010; 53: 308-309.
17. Pahuja S, Sharma M, Baitha B, Jain M. Prevalence and trends of markers of hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus andHIV in Delhi blood donors: A hospital based study. JP J Inf Dis 2007; 60: 389-91.
18. Singh B, Verma M, Kotru M, Verma K, Batra M. Prevalence of HIV and VDRL seropositivity in blood donors of Delhi. Indian J Med Res 2005; 122: 234-36.
19. Kakkar N, Kaur R, Dhanoa J. Voluntary donors need for a second look. Indian J Pathol Microbiol 2004; 47: 381-83.
20. Khageshan AP, Kulkarni KR, Baragundi MC. Seroprevalence of Co-infections among blood donors in a blood bank of a tertiary care health centre. APALM 2016; 3(1): A29-32.
21. Sunderam S, Karir S, Haider S, Singh SB, Kiran A. Seroprevalence of Transfusion Transmitted infections among blood donors at Blood Bank of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi. Healthline Journal 2015; 6(1): 36-40.
22. Shah N, Shah JM, Jhaveri P, Patel K, Shah CK, Shah NR. Seroprevalence of HBV, HCV, HIV and syphilis among blood donors at a tertiary care teaching hospital in Western India. Gujarat Medical Journal 2013; 68(2): 35-39.
23. Mandal R, Mondal K. Transfusion Transmissible infections among blood donors from a sub-Himalayan rural tertiary care centre in Darjeeling, India. Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine 2015; 1-6.
24. Philip J, Sarkar RS, Kumar S, Pathak A. Changing trends of Transfusion transmitted viral infections among blood donors in the last decade - A 10 year study in a large tertiary care blood bank (2000-2009). MJAFI 2015; 68(1): 28-32.
25. Pallavi P, Ganesh CK, Jayshree K, Manjunath GV. Seroprevalence and trends in Transfusion Transmitted Infections among blood donors in a university hospital blood bank – A 5 year study. Indian J Hematol Blood Transfus 2011 Mar; 27(1): 1-6.
26. Agrawal P, Suraj Jain S, Surana SS, Sujanani S. Prevalence of Transfusion Transmitted Infections among Blood Donors at a Tertiary care Teaching Hospital in Southern Rajasthan. Annals of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine March - April 2017; 04(02):138-141.
27. Kaur H, Mannan R, Manjari M. Seroprevalence of the blood borne infections in blood donors: Our 11 year (2001-2011) experience in a tertiary care teaching hospital at Amritsar (Punjab). International Journal of Advanced Research 2014; 2(6): 967-71.
28. Fernandes H, D’Souza PF, D’Souza PM. Prevalence of Transfusion Transmitted Infections in voluntary and replacement Donors. Indian J Hematol Blood Transfus 2010; 26(3): 89-91.
29. Sinha SK, Roychoudhury S, Biswas K, Biswas P, Bandopadhyay R. Prevalence of HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and Syphilis in donor’s blood: A study from eastern part of India. Open Journal of Hematology. 2012; 3:1.
30. TRANSCON 2011 - 36th Annual National Conference of Indian Society of Blood Transfusion and Immunohematology (ISBTI). Asian J Transfus Sci. 2012; 6:59-129.
31. Mathai J, Sulochana PV, Satyabhama S, Nair PK, Sivakumar S. Profile of transfusion transmissible infections and associated risk factors among blood donors of Kerala. Indian J Pathol Microbiol. 2002; 45:319–22.
32. Lavanya V, Viswanathan T, Arul Sheeba Malar S, Malarvizhi A, Moorthy K. Prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection among blood donors with antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen. Int J Med Med Sci. 2012; 4:128-37.
33. Makroo RN, Choudhury N, Jagannathan L, PariharMalhotra M, Raina V, Chaudhary RK, et al. Multicenter evaluation of individual donor nucleic acid testing (NAT) for simultaneous detection of human immunodeficiency virus-1 & hepatitis B & C viruses in blood donors. Indian J Med Res. 2008; 127:140-7.
34. Jain R and Gupta G. Family/friend donors are not true voluntary donors. Asian J Transfus Sci. 2012; 6:29-31.
35. Prevention of Hepatitis B in India-An Overview by World Health Organization. New Delhi: World Health Organization; 2002 August. Available at http://apps.searo.who.int/PDS_DOCS/B3368.pdf/ Accessed on 20-02-2018.
36. Sonwane BR, Birare SD, Kulkarni PV. Prevalence of seroreactivity among blood donors in rural population. Indian J of Med Sci. 2003; 57: 405-7.
37. Dhar G, Sarkar AP, Sen S, Ghosh S, Mukhopadhyay BB, Ghosh TK. Patterns of infective sero positivity among blood donors in a rural Medical College Regional Blood Transfusion centre: A retrospective study. Nepal Journal of Medical Sciences 2013;2(1):3-8.
38. Koshy JM, Manoharan A, John M, Kaur R, Kaur P. Epidemiological profi le of seropositive blood donors at a tertiary care hospital in North India. CHRISMED J Health Res 2014;1:91-4.
39. Gupta N, Kumar V, Kaur A. Seroprevalence of HIV, HBV,HCV and syphilis in voluntary blood donors. Indian J Med Sci 2004; 58:255–257.

Dr Pankaj Gupta

Post Graduate Trainee, Department of Radiodiagnosis, Index Medical College Hospital & Research Centre,

Index City, Nemawar Road, NH-59A, Indore, Madhya Pradesh 452016

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.