Background: Transmission of infectious diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, and others through donated blood needs a serious monitoring to provide safe blood for transfusion, which forms an integral part of medical and surgical therapy. Objective: To access the seroprevalence of transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs) in Malwa region and assess the level of blood safety. Material and Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted for the duration of 12 months. The known seropositive donors for any of these infections (HIV, HBV, HCV, syphilis, and malaria) and hemoglobin less than 12.5 g% were excluded. All donor samples were screened for HIV, HBsAg, and anti-HCV by ELISA methods; syphilis and malaria screening was done by card test. Result: Among the total 4,007 donors, 92% were replacement donors while 8% were voluntary donors. Female donors comprised only 1.62%; the remaining 98.38% were male donors. The donor population was mostly in the young age group of 18-30 years (69.1%). Totally, 2.05% (n = 83) blood bags were seropositive for TTI. HBV was the most common TTI (1.77% bags); HIV was the second most common TTI (0.14% bags); HCV was detected in 0.099% bags, whereas syphilis was the least common TTI (0.04% bags). Conclusion: Two to 3% of healthy donors are seropositive for TTI and reveal potential of transmitting them through transfusion. Thus, strict and proper donor selection criteria and screening with higher-generation ELISA kits can help to identify and avoid transfusion of infectious blood products.

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The minimum haemoglobin (Hb) cut-off for blood donation as per world blood transfusion standards is 12.5 gm/dl for both male and female donors and the minimum donation interval is 3 months. Blood donation with haemoglobin levels less than 12.5 gm/dl can cause anaemia or deterioration of conditions of donor and deterioration of recipient condition because of low haemoglobin. Donation of one unit of blood results in decrease in haemoglobin by 1 gm% and loss of 200-250 mg of iron. Donor deferral due to anaemia is one of the major reasons of temporary rejection of blood donors. In the absence of further workup or advice, it results in loss of valuable donor base. This study is conducted to provide baseline information regarding the prevalence of anaemia in donor and assess distribution of donor according to socioeconomic status of donor. Haemoglobin screening of donors was performed using Copper sulphate specific gravity method. Venus blood sample of all the donors was tested on automated haematology analyser for confirmation of haemoglobin and evaluation of other haemogram parameters. In this study 6.7% donors were deferred due to anaemia (<12.5gm/dl). Most of the donors (>75%) belonged to middle socioeconomic group according to Prasad socio-economic scale (SES) scale.