PREVALENCE AND TRENDS OF TRANSFUSION TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS (TTIS) IN BLOOD DONORS OF DISTRICT PESHAWAR AND WAH CANTONMENT, NORTHERN PAKISTAN.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: World Health Organization (WHO) confirms Pakistan amongst those nations whichare affected the most by Hepatitis B and C. Studies also suggest blood transfusion to be one of the majorrisk factors for the high sero-prevalence of these diseases in the general population. Very few studieshave been carried out to establish the prevalence of TTIs among blood donors in Northern Pakistan. Toestimate the prevalence and trend of transfusion related transmission of infection in Northern Pakistan, astudy was carried out among records of blood donors to detect different infection from the year 2007 -2012.MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective study to audit the records of 423078 blood donors wascarried out in five major Blood Bank Units of Northern Pakistan which included Khyber TeachingHospital Peshawar, Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, Hamza Foundation Peshawar, Hayatabad MedicalComplex Peshawar and POF Hospital Wah Cantonment, Punjab from January 2007 through May 2012.In order to investigate differences among the trends of different variables in year 2007 - 2012, one-wayANOVA was used.RESULTS: Combined sero-prevalence of Transfusion Transmitted infections were calculated as4.245%. The break up is as follows: HCV Ab: 1.856% (7855), HBS Ag: 2.170% (9184), HIV Ab:0.0316% (134) and Syphilis: 0.315% (867). A mean increase in the number of blood donors (p-0.000 )was calculated while other infections also increased significantly [HBS Ag p=0.0001, HIV Ab p= HIVAb p=0.0051 and VDRL p=0.011] except HCV [/7=0.55/5], which remained steady over the years.CONCLUSION: The prevalence of infection of HCV during this period remained steady over theyears, however it is still high. Other transfusion transmitted infections showed increasing trend.Improvements such as provision of latest screening kits, maintenance of computerized records includingnecessary data for follow up should be made. We recommend ‘pre’ instead of ‘post’ donation screeningto be done because of the high seroprevalence of TTIs. Awareness campaigns, seminars and vaccinationprograms should be conducted by the health sector, especially for Hepatitis B.KEY WORDS: prevalence, transfusion, infections.