Survey of hepatitis markers among donors in the state of Qatar

A total of 78,428 blood units collected by the Blood Donor Unit, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, from the multinational donors of Qatar [28,622 Qatari nationals donors and 49, 806 Non-Qatari donors] in the period January 1994 to Dececember 2001 were screened for hepatitis markers. About 10, 382 units [13.2%] were discarded because of positivity for one or more hepatitis markers; 769 units [0.9%] were positive for hepatitis-B surface antigen [HBsAg], 8516 units [10.9%] were positive for hepatitis- B core antibodies [HBcAb] and 1097 units [1.39%] were positive for hepatitis C [HCV] antibodies. There was no significant difference between the rate of positivity for HBcAb and HBsAg in indigenous Qataris and Non-Qataris despite a slightly higher rate of positivity for HCV antibodies in the Non-Qatari group. An outstanding finding was the significantly high rate of positivity for HCV antibodies in Egyptian donations [11.2%], which accounted for 31.2% of all discards for the Non-Qatari group. As the Blood Donor Unit at HMC is the only blood collection center in Qatar it is assumed that the results could be representative of the country as a whole

Pancytopenia due to hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in a patient with acute brucellosis

A Bangladeshi male patient with a culture positive Brucellosis had severe pancytopenia and fever. Patient was found to have Hemophagocytosis. He had uneventful recovery after treatment of Brucellosis. Discussion of the case and its treatment is presented