Seroprevalence of Major Transfusion-Transmissible Infections among Foreign Departing Employees from Itahari, Nepal.

Abstract

Transfusion-Transmissible Infections (TTIs) include human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and syphilis that are transmitted from person to person through parenteral, administration of blood or blood products leading to serious health problems. The present study was lab based cross-sectional study conducted from February 2018 to August 2019 to investigate the prevalence of hepatitis B, HIV, hepatitis C, and syphilis among the foreign departing employees from Itahari, Sunsari, Nepal. The samples were screened for the presence of anti-HIV IgG, HBsAg, anti-syphilis and anti-HCV IgG using commercial rapid test kits following standard protocols. A total of 4260 samples processed, the overall seroprevalence of TTIs was found to be 1.22% (52/4260). Seroprevalence of HIV was found to be 0.05% (2/4260), HBV was found to be 0.53% (23/4260), HCV was found to be 0.18% (8/4260) and syphilis was found to be 0.45% (19/4260). Among the transfusion transmissible infections in individuals going for foreign employment, the most prevalent was found to be hepatitis B (0.53%). In overall, the TTIs infection was most prevalent in the age group of 24-29 (0.35%) and 30-35 (0.35%) years. Further investigation including studying the prevalence of TTIs in general population is required to address the issue and to formulate proper preventive, diagnosis and treatment procedures of these infections.