Seroprevalence of infectious agents in blood donors from a hospital on the Southern border of Mexico.

Background: Blood transfusion and its derivatives are an essential therapeutic action in the different hospital services. Despite the strict haemovigilance carried out in blood banks, there is still a residual risk of contracting infectious diseases through blood transfusion.

Objective: To determine the seroprevalence of infectious agents in blood donors.

Material and methods: Retrospective and observational study. The detections were made in blood donors who came to the blood bank of the General Hospital Zone No. 1 of Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico, during the period from August 2020 to December 2023.

Results: The general seroprevalence was 3.94%, with syphilis being most frequently found (1.37%), followed by brucellosis (1.17%), human immunodeficiency virus (0.55%), hepatitis C (0.34%), hepatitis B (0.19%), and Chagas disease (0.19%), with 0.10% of co-infection cases.

Conclusions: The seroprevalence of infectious agents in blood donors described in this study allows us to know an epidemiological overview of what happened in a city on the Southern border of Mexico, reaffirming syphilis as a re-emerging disease in this zone, with high prevalences of brucellosis and human immunodeficiency virus.