Seroprevalence of Transfusion Transmissible Infections among Blood Donors at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Central India

Introduction: Blood transfusion is both a life saving measure in many medical and surgical emergencies and a source of transfusion transmitted infections. So a provision for strict criteria in recruitment and deferral of blood donors may improve safe transfusion practice. The present study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of transfusion transmitted infections in voluntary and replacement donors at a tertiary care teaching hospital in Indore, Madhya Pradesh,Central India. Material and Methods: The present study was a 4 year retrospective study from 2015 to 2018. Data was analyzed from blood bank records,pertaining to all donors who were screened for HBsAg, Hepatitis C virus and HIV by using appropriate methods. Results: A total of 45,704 Voluntary & replacement donors were screened out of which 44,663 (97.72%) were males & 1041 (2.27%) were females. The overall seroprevalence of HBV & HCV was 1.29% & 0.072% respectively, while the prevalence of HIV was 0.076%.The prevalence rate was highest for HBV followed by HIV and HCV in decreasing order. The overall seroprevalence of various TTI’s among the studied donors was 1.43%. Conclusion: Blood is still one of the main sources of transmission of infections like HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. Extensive donor selection and screening procedures will help in improving the blood safety.