Introduction: Hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and syphilis are the serious infections transmitted during blood transfusion especially with blood donation put millions of people at risk of transfusion-transmissible infections (TTIs).
Purpose: To determine the seroprevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen, hepatitis C virus antibody, anti-human immunodeficiency virus, and syphilis in blood donors in Beni-Seuf University hospital blood bank.
Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective, descriptive study. All blood donors' records from November 2007 to April 2015 were included. We analyzed data from 30055 blood samples collected. ELISA technique to detect HCV Ab, HBsAg, HIV Ab and VDRL for syphilis was used.
Results: Seroprevalence of HCV, HBV, HIV, and syphilis among blood donors were (9.4, 1.6, 0.1 and 0.0002, respectively). The majority of donors, 28197 (93.3%) were males, while females were 1858 (6.7%). Prevalence of HBsAg and anti-HCV were significantly higher among males (1.5% , 8.8%, respectively) than females (0.1% and 0.6%, respectively) with (P ˂ 0.001). There was a decreasing prevalence of HCV among blood donors as the annual Anti-HCV prevalence dropped significantly from 3.29 in 2007 to 0.4 % in 2015 with (P ˂ 0.01), whereas there was a mild variation in the prevalence of HBsAg, throughout the study period, that was not statistically significant (P = 0.6).
Conclusion: It is important to continue screening donated blood with highly sensitive and specific tests to ensure the safety of blood for the recipient.