Safety of Blood Transfusion: An Egyptian Study

Abstract

Introduction: Blood safety presents a serious challenge in Egypt, having the highest prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV). Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of blood donor recruitment strategies, the seroprevalence of positive infectious markers among volunteer donors (VD) and family replacement donors (RD) at a University Hospital Blood Bank was studied. Methodology: Donors’ records covering the period between 2006 and 2012 were reviewed. All donations had been tested using the following screening tests ; Ortho for HCV antibody (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test system Version 3.0, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Inc., Raritan, NJ) and Siemens (Siemens Enzygnost assay, Healthcare Diagnostic Products, Marburg, Germany) for HBsAg (Enzygnost HBsAg 6.0), human immune deficiency virus (HIV)-1 and HIV-2 antibodyies (Enzygnost HIV integral II), and syphilis antibodies. Reactive samples were not confirmed with additional tests. Results: Of 308,762 donors, 63.4% were VD. The overall prevalence of HCV antibodies, HBsAg, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and syphilis antibodies were 4.3%, 1.22%, 0.07%, and 0.13%, respectively. After stratification for age and gender, all tested markers (except HIV) were significantly higher among RD.A significant decline in HCV seropositivity was observed in RD and VD from 8.9% and 4.2% in 2007/2008 to 3.8% and 1.5% in 2011/2012, respectively. A significant decrease in HBsAg was demonstrated in VD from 1.2% in 2007/2008 to 0.53% in 2011/2012. During the period 2007- 2011, an increasing trend for HIV and syphilis was noted. Conclusion: The decreasing trend in HCV antibodies and HBsAg could be related to the strict donor selection criteria.

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