Prevalence of HBsAg and anti-HCV antibodies in poly-transfused- beta-thalassaemia major children in Lahore

ABSTRACT

To determine the prevalence of HBsAg and Anti-HCV antibodies in polytransfused thalassaemic children at two different Thalassaemia Centres i.e. The Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion Service [IHBTS] Punjab, Lahore and The Thalassaemia Centre at Sir Gangaram Hospital, Lahore. To compare the prevalence of these markers between two centres. To determine association of sero-positivity with number of transfusions. It is a cross sectional study. All information was gathered by questionnaire. Blood samples of 150 thalassaemic patients were collected from two different thalassaemia centres and sera were screened for HBsAg and Anti-HCV antibodies by ELISA technique. SPSS version 16 was used to analyze the data. Chi-square was applied to determine the association between number of transfusions and sero-positivity. The prevalence of HBsAg and Anti-HCV antibodies was 0% and 68% respectively among the patients of IHBTS. 1% and 43% patients were positive for HBsAg and Anti-HCV antibodies respectively at Thalassaemia Centre at Sir Gangaram Hospital. The overall prevalence of HBsAg and Anti-HCV antibodies was 0.66% and 51.3% respectively. Prevalence of anti-HCV was more at IHBTS. An association was observed in increasing number of transfusions and increasing positivity of patients for Anti-HCV [p-value = 0.018]. There is a need to focus on our health safety managements. A higher prevalence of Anti-HCV was observed due to weak infrastructure of health care centres or blood banks