Seroprevalence of transfusion transmitted infections in voluntary and replacement donors: A five years study

The transfusion of blood and its component is very essential health care modality wherein it saves life, but can also be hazardous to recipients. Despite of stringent screening methods done prior to transfusion there is always a bleak possibility of getting infections like HIV, HCV, HBV, Treponema pallidum and malaria. This study was a retrospective study carried out at Blood Bank and Component Lab, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Memorial Medical College, Amravati over period of five years. A total of 52606 donor's blood was collected over the period of 5 years (From 1st January 2012 to 31st December 2016). Out of these 45,796 (87.05%) were voluntary blood donations and 6,810 (12.94%) were replacement Blood donations. The overall seropositivity for all TTIs (HIV, HCV, HBV, Treponema pallidum and malaria) over a period of five years was found to be 1425 (2.71%) in which 1081 (2.36%) were voluntary donors and 344 (5.05%) were replacement donors. It was observed from the findings of this study that seropositivity rate of TTIs was less among voluntary donors. It was concluded that to improve blood safety extensive donor selection, use of sensitive screening and establishing strict guidelines in blood transfusion will help us to reduce burden of TTIs in our society.