Seroprevalence and Trends of Transfusion Transmitted Coinfections among Blood Donors in North West Punjab - A Retrospective Study

BACKGROUND Blood transfusion has been a boon to medical science, but at the same time, it exposes millions of people to transfusion transmitted infections (TTI). TTI are the infections that are transmissible from one person to another through parenteral administration of blood / blood products. Various TTIs are hepatitis C (HCV), hepatitis B (HBV), syphilis, human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) and malaria. With increasing use of blood transfusion, chances of transmission of TTIs is very common but proper screening of donor blood has reduced the chances of TTI. The present study was done to know the seroprevalence of HCV, HBV, HIV and syphilis and their coinfections. METHODS A retrospective study was conducted by reviewing the records from January 2015 to December 2019 at a blood bank of Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research at Amritsar, Punjab. Number of donors included in the study were 43,037. All the donors who came to blood bank were tested for TTIs by enhanced chemiluminescent immunoassay. METHODS A retrospective study was conducted by reviewing the records from January 2015 to December 2019 at a blood bank of Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research at Amritsar, Punjab. Number of donors included in the study were 43,037. All the donors who came to blood bank were tested for TTIs by enhanced chemiluminescent immunoassay. RESULTS Number of donors tested for TTI was 43,037. Out of 43037, 1739 patients had serological evidence of TTIs, out of which 1669 (96.19 %) had mono-infection and 70 (4.04 %) had coinfections. HCV & HBV (28 / 70) was the most common combination, followed by HCV & HIV (20 / 70), HCV & syphilis (9 / 70), HIV & syphilis (5 / 70), HBV & syphilis (3 / 70) and HBV & HIV (1 / 70). Two donors had HIV, HCV & syphilis coinfections and two donors had HIV, HBV & HCV coinfections. CONCLUSIONS The present study documents the high prevalence of TTI out of which hepatitis C is the most common followed by hepatitis B. Among coinfections, two most prevalent coinfections are HCV & HBV and HCV & HIV and it is important to screen for these coinfections due to their impact on the course of disease as well as quality of life. This shows the increasing evidence of transfusion transmissible infection in blood donors in spite of advanced and vigilant screening of donated blood prior to transfusion. So, strategies should be devised for monitoring the implementation of post donation counselling for recruitment of safe donors. KEYWORDS Coinfections, Transfusion Transmitted Infections, Seroprevalence