Assessing HIV trends among blood donors in five Brazilian blood centers: The impact of individual donor assessment.

Background: In many countries, including Brazil, time-based blood donation deferral policies for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM) have been replaced by individual donor assessment (IDA). We examined HIV prevalence and incidence among first-time (FTD) and repeat donors (RD), comparing data from ~3.5 years before and after the IDA policy implementation in 2020.

Study design and methods: The Recipient Epidemiology and Donor Evaluation Study-IV-Pediatric (REDS-IV-P) Brazil component collects blood donor screening data from five public centers. From January 2017 to December 2023, we report frequencies, rates, and 95% confidence interval (CI) of confirmed HIV-positive donations among FTD, HIV NAT-yield rates for FTD and RD, and the incidence of confirmed HIV among RD before and after the policy change. We also report multivariable regression analysis results.

Results: Confirmed HIV prevalence in FTD was 79 per 100,000 (95% CI 72-87) before and 100 per 100,000 (95% CI 90-109) after the policy change, with differences between centers. HIV NAT-yield rates decreased for RD (p = .0025), with no change for FTD (p = .3). HIV incidence in RD did not increase (12.4 [95% CI: 11.1-13.9] vs. 10.3 [95% CI: 9-11.7] per 100,000 person-years).

Discussion: Our findings showed no significant difference in HIV incidence among RD. Although HIV prevalence among FTD increased, there was no rise in HIV NAT-yield donations. The analysis highlights challenges in interpreting changes within specific groups and blood centers, underscoring the importance of multicenter monitoring of transfusion-transmitted infections.