Assessment of residual risk of hepatitis C virus transmission by blood transfusion in Taiyuan / 中国输血杂志

ABSTRACT

【Objective】 To analyze the epidemic of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in voluntary blood donors , and to assess the residual risk of HCV transmission by blood transfusion in Taiyuan. 【Methods】 The HCV screening results of voluntary blood donors in Taiyuan from 2016 to 2021 were collected by blood center information system, and the epidemiologic feature of first-time and repeated donors were analyzed. The incidence-window period model was used to assess the residual risk of HCV transmission by transfusion in first-time/repeated donors as well as that in repeated donors under different blood screening modes. 【Results】 Of the 662 705 samples in Taiyuan from 2016 to 2021, the HCV positive rate of the first-time donors was 1.83‰(595/325 009) and the residual risk of HCV transmission was 14.91/100 000. The HCV positive rate of the repeated donors was 0.04‰ (13/337 696) and the residual risk was 0.31/1 000 000. The total residual risk of HCV transmission was 7.47/1 000 000. A total of 337 696 blood samples of repeated blood donors were tested, the repeated blood donors’ residual risk of transfusion-transmitted HCV was 0.31/100 000 after dual ELISA tests , and 0.06/100 000 after dual ELISA and once NAT, which reduce by 80.65% since NAT were adopted. 【Conclusion】 The residual risk of HCV transmission from repeated donors was less than that from first-time donors. The blood screening mode of HCV by dual ELISA and once NAT can effectively reduce the residual risk of transfusion-transmitted HCV and improve blood safety. The rate of repeat blood donation needs to be increased by continuously optimizing the recruitment strategy of blood donors.