A study on patterns of co-infections among blood donors at the blood bank of a tertiary care referral teaching hospital in South India

Background: Blood serves as a vehicle for transmission of blood-borne pathogens including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), malaria parasite (MP) and syphilis. Safe blood and blood products should be transfused to all patients in need for blood transfusion. Material and Methods: All blood donors attending to the blood bank during the period January 2009 to December 2014 were screened for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), anti HCV antibody, anti HIV-1, 2 antibodies and HIV p24 antigen by using the appropriate enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method and further confirmed using an ELISA kit from a different manufacturer. Malarial antigen testing was done by rapid diagnostic device, which is based on immunochromatographic technique. The rapid plasma reagin (RPR) test was used for estimation of syphilis infection and further confirmed by Treponema pallidum haemagglutination assay (TPHA). Results: Of the 41,785 donors who were screened during the study period, 20 (0.05%) were reactive for different combination of infections. The various combination of infections seen were as follows; HBV+HCV and HBV+HIV (6/20) each, HIV+HCV (3/20), HIV + syphilis (2/20) and HBV+HIV+HCV, HBV+MP, HBV+syphilis (1/20 each); and HIV+Syphilis constituted for 10% (2/20). Conclusion: A properly conducted donor screening, notification and counseling of permanently deferred donors will help in reducing these co-infection rates.