Survey of hepatitis markers among donors in the state of Qatar

ABSTRACT

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