Seroprevalence of Viral Hepatitis C on Donations of Blood at Moulay Ismail Military Hospital in Meknes

Abstract

Introduction: Hepatitis C is an infection with hepatocellular tropism, transmitted by the hepatitis C virus via fecal-oral, parenteral or mother-to-child transmission. Her active chronic carriage may be the cause of cirrhosis. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of HCV in blood donations collected at the Moulay Ismail military hospital in Meknes in order to protect the recipients. Material and Methods: This is a retrospective study of 8639 military blood donors. All donors have gone through a pre-screening stage involving an anamnesis and pre-donation clinical examination associated with a biological screening performed by the 4th generation recombinant ELISA and confirmed on the Abott Architect system. Result: The study is focused on 8639 blood donors, mostly male, with extreme ages of 18 to 56 years. We found an HCV seroprevalence of 0.17%. No case of co-infection has been recorded. Discussion and conclusion: The HCV seroprevalence rate in our series remains relatively low in comparison with the data of the literature, this could be related to the campaigns of sensitization, to the exposure of the preventive measures for the military population as well as to the success of the pre-selection stage at Moulay Ismail hospital in Meknes.