Abstract
The emergence of transfusion transmitted infection (TTI) especially HIV/AIDS has created a huge obstacle in ensuring blood safety. To assess the situation in Eritrea, we carried out a retrospective study of 29,501 blood donors for the prevalence of TTI's i.e. HIV, HBV, HCV and Syphilis. The study population included all donors who donated blood from January 2006 to November 2009. The data was collected from the National Blood Transfusion Services (NTBS) of Eritrea and includes category of donor and result for TTI markers. A total of 29,501 units of blood were collected from 23,385(79%) voluntary blood donors and the rest 6,116(21%) units were collected from family replacement donors. The over all prevalence of TTI's were 3.8% with 3.5% in voluntary blood donors and 5.1% in family replacement donors. The sero-prevalence for TTI markers were 0.18% HIV, 2.58% HBV, 0.57% HCV and 0.49% Syphilis. In conclusion, even if the TTI prevalence rate among Eritrean blood donors is low, ensuring blood safety has a long way to go.
Highlights
The emergence of transfusion transmitted infection (TTI) especially HIV/AIDS has created a huge obstacle in ensuring blood safety
Over the last two decades, much attention has been given to the prevention of transfusion-transmitted viral infections such as HIV-1 and 2, human T cell Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) I and II, Hepatitis C virus (HCV), Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and West Nile Virus (WNV)
The number of voluntary blood donor positive for TTI markers was 817 (3.5%) and 311 (5.1%) donors were positive for TTI markers in family replacement blood donors (Table 2)
Summary
The emergence of transfusion transmitted infection (TTI) especially HIV/AIDS has created a huge obstacle in ensuring blood safety. To assess the situation in Eritrea, we carried out a retrospective study of 29,501 blood donors for the prevalence of TTI’s i.e. HIV, HBV, HCV and Syphilis. Everywhere in the world, transfusion of human blood is an essential therapeutic procedure, as there is no genuine substitution Even though it can save human lives, in some instances it can transmit infectious diseases, which are fatal, for instance 5–10% of HIV transmission in Africa is as a result of contaminated blood transfusions [1]. With the rapid increase in number of people with transfusion transmissible infections (TTI’s) including HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B and C, Human T cell Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) I and II, Syphilis, Cytomegalovirus, Epstein Barr Virus, Brucellosis, Toxoplasmosis etc.
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