SEROPREVALENCE OF TRANSFUSION TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS (TTIS) AMONG BLOOD DONORS OF NEPAL RED CROSS SOCIETY (NRCS), DHARAN SUB-METROPOLITAN CITY, NEPAL

BACKGROUND: Besides medical treatment of patients in various hospitals, blood transfusion is one of the life-saving measures for medical emergencies. However, blood receivers can be at great risk of infection in the window period. OBJECTIVE: This study was focused on to evaluate the seropositivity of HIV, HBV, HCV, and Syphilis in blood donors at Blood Transfusion Service of Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), for a period of 1 year from June 2016 to June 2017. METHODOLOGY: During the study period, all the blood samples collected from donors were screened for Syphilis and Hepatitis B (HBsAg), Syphilis by using ABONTM and Hepacard respectively and for HIV and HCV and HIV, Tri-dot test kits were used respectively. RESULT: A total of 8030 blood samples from volunteer blood donors were examined during this study. Among these, 83.4% of samples were from males and 16.6% were from females. The HIV, HBV HCV and Syphilis seroprevalence were found to be 5 (0.06%), 26 (0.32%), 34(0.42%) and 28(0.34%) respectively. Among the1329 female blood donors, only 1 female was HIV positive, 5 female were found to be HBV, 4 were HCV, and 5 were syphilis positive with seroprevalence (0.075%),(0.37%), (0.30%), and (0.37%). Among the 6701 male blood donors, only 4 male were HIV positive, 21 male were found to be HBV, 4 were HCV and 5 were syphilis positive with of seroprevalence (0.059%),(0.31%),(0.44%) and (0.34 %) respectively. CONCLUSION: Unsafe blood transfusion poses an increased risk of TTIs. The prevalence of TTIs found was in low rates but the chance of multiple infections is still a problem to the recipients. Screening of blood and blood products would reduce the chances of transfusion-transmitted infection and it also has great public health importance.