Prevalence and trends of transfusion-transmissible infections and study of confidential unit exclusion among blood donors in kurdistan province of iran

Background and Aims: Evaluation of the prevalence of transfusion-transmissible infections [TTIs] in blood donors is a valuable index of donor selection and blood safety. This study was conducted to explore the prevalence and trends of TTIs markers and study of confidential unit exclusion [CUE] option among blood donors in Kurdistan province in the west of Iran

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Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis on all volunteer donors from 2007 to 2014. Serologic tests were performed to detect TTIs markers. The seropositive results were confirmed using the confirmatory assays

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Results: Of 197568 cases of the blood donated during 2007 and 2014, 0.29% was positive for Hepatitis B surface antigen, 0.006% for anti -human immunodeficiency virus and 0.06% for anti-hepatitis C virus. The prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus remained stably below 0.02% during the study period whereas the prevalence of Hepatitis B surface antigen showed a downward trend over the period of 8 years. The trend of hepatitis C virus infection frequency had increasing patterns from 2007 to 2009 and decreasing patterns thereafter to 0.05%. CUE was chosen in 1442 [0.7%] donations. Out of this number, 864 [59.9%] were first time blood donors and 578 [40.08%] repeat donors. CUE-positive donations had significantly higher risk of TTIs markers [p< 0.000]

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Conclusions: The prevalence rate of viral infections has been reduced to low levels in blood donations over the 8 years. Moreover, CUE is considered an effective option for identifying donors with increased risk of TTIs markers