Transfusion Transmissible Infections in Blood Donors in the Province of Bié, Angola, during a 15-Year Follow-Up, Imply the Need for Pathogen Reduction Technologies.

Luis Baião Peliganga,Miguel Nobrega,João Pedro Da Silva Nunes,Vinicius Motta Mello,Lia Laura Lewis-Ximenez,Álvaro Domingos Soares,Paulo Sergio Fonseca De Sousa,Marco Aurelio Pereira Horta

doi:10.3390/pathogens10121633

Abstract

Transfusion transmissible infections (TTIs), caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV), human immunode-ficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and syphilis, have a high global impact, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. We evaluated the trend of these infections over time in blood donors in Angola. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among blood donors in Angola from 2005 to 2020. Additionally, frozen samples obtained from blood donors in 2007 were investigated to identify chronic HCV carriers and possible occult HBV infection (OBI). The overall prevalence of HBV, HCV, HIV, and syphilis was 8.5, 3, 2.1, and 4.4%, respectively, among 57,979 blood donors. HBV was predominant among male donors, while the remaining TTIs were predominant among women. Donors >50 years had a significantly high prevalence for all TTIs. Chronic HCV infection was ab-sent in 500 samples tested and OBI was present in 3%. Our results show the continued high prev-alence of TTIs among blood donors in Angola. Most infections showed a significantly low preva-lence in years with campaigns seeking voluntary blood donors, thus, reinforcing the importance of this type of donor to ensure safe blood. Africa, with a high prevalence of diverse pathogens, should consider cost-effective pathogen reduction technologies, once they are commercially accessible, to increase the availability of safe blood.

Highlights

Transfusion transmissible infections (TTIs) have a high global public health burden
The average proportion of blood donors screened for TTIs was 98.2% for hepatitis B virus (HBV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), 97.3% for syphilis, and 95.3% for hepatitis C virus (HCV)
Among the 57,979 registered blood donors, 10,172 TTIs were identified with an overall prevalence for HBV, HCV, HIV, and syphilis being 8.4%, 3.0%, 2.1%, and 4.4%, respectively (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

An estimated 354 million individuals worldwide are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) [1], which caused 1.1 million deaths globally in 2019 [1]. This number has surpassed that of deaths caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which for 2020 was estimated at 680,000 globally. HIV infects approximately 37.7 million people worldwide, with 67% (25.4 million) living in Africa [1,2]. Updated data for 2020 estimated 7.1 million new cases of syphilis worldwide, which surpasses the total of 4.5 million cases for the other three TTIs combined [1]

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