Background:The youth of the country especially college students can serve as a readily available pool of voluntary blood donors and help tide away some of the scarcity of blood and blood products. This study was conducted to determine the Knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) regarding Voluntary Blood Donation among medical undergraduate studentsand to assess the factors which can lead to a subsequent increase in the same. Method:A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted amongst 500 undergraduate medical students studying at Government Medical College, Patiala, Punjab using a structured, self-administered questionnaire regarding KAP. Results:The mean age of the 500 participating students was 20.46 years with a standard deviation of 1.5 of which 55.2% were females.71.2% and 61.4% students had correct knowledge regarding interval between blood donation for males and females respectively but the knowledge regarding common causes of deferral was less. Posters and pamphlets were the most common sources of information regarding blood donation.92.6% students had a good attitude towards blood donation. 127 (25.4%) students had donated blood previously and 17 (3.4%) of them had donated blood more than once in a year. Conclusion:The students had a fair knowledge about VBD and the majority had a favourable attitude towards it. Steps should be taken to increase the awareness regarding VBD since early sensitisation towards its importance can motivate students to become voluntary blood donors, making them major contributors to the blood donor pool throughout their adulthood and help in overcoming blood shortage in the country.
Background: The prevalence of transfusion transmitted infections (TTIs), in blood transfusion services are a major problem across blood banks and hospitals in the world. In, India, the effort to provide safe transfusion to patients is a heightened problem for various reasons. In this study, seroprevalence of Transfusion transmitted infections such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) was investigated in a pool of blood donors.Methods: The data collection was carried out for a period of two years from, January 2017 to December 2018, and total sample size of donors was 38,142. We studied the frequency, gender wise distribution, donor (first time vs repeat) wise distribution and yearly trend of seroprevalence of TTIs in blood units donated at our hospital.Results: A total of 37,457 (98.2%) males and 685 (1.79%) females donated blood during the study period. The results suggest that among the blood donors, the prevalence of HCV was highest (0.77%) followed by HBV (0.46%) and HIV (0.13%). Seropositivity was found to be more in first-time donors (0.83%) as compared to repeat-donors (0.52%). Seropositivity was found to be more among males (1.35%) than females (0.01%). The discussion suggests underlying reasons for the results along-with future direction of research.Conclusions: The need of the hour is to encourage repeat voluntary blood donors in order to maintain safe supply of blood and its components to donors. Efforts should be made to include females in the blood donor pool by increasing awareness and through dedicated efforts to improve female health and nutrition.
Background: Occult hepatitis B virus infection (OBI) is defined as the presence of circulating hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA as detected by HBV nucleic acid test (NAT), in the absence of detectable HBV surface antigen (HBsAg), with or without antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) or hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs). HBV infection is a continuing threat to transfusion safety, especially in developing counties like India where detection of HBV is primarily based on the screening for HBsAg as a marker of infection. Objective: To know the prevalence of OBI among blood donors and their serological and molecular characterization of NAT yield samples. Materials and Methods: A total of 41,090 blood donor's samples from February 2014 to August 2015 were tested by indivi dual donor-NAT (ID-NAT) apart from routine serological screening for anti-HIV 1-2, P24 antigen, anti-HCV, and Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) by Biomerieux (Vironostika ® HIV Ag-Ab, Hepanostika ® HCV Ultra, and HBsAg Ultra, France). All the samples were tested individually by Procleix ® Utrio Plus ® Assay (Novartis Emeryville, CA). Blood units that were HBsAg nonreactive but ID-NAT reactive (NAT yield) were further worked up with anti-HBc, anti-HBsAg, viral DNA load, and viral genotyping. Result: Of the 41,090 samples, 29 were reactive for HBV DNA (NAT yield). Among the 29 NAT yields, 24 were individual NAT yield, 4 were HBV-HCV NAT co-yield, and 1was HBV-HIV NAT co-yield. A total of 24 HBV individual NAT yield samples were further tested for OBI. A total of 11 samples were reactive for anti-HBc only, 3 samples carried both anti-HBc and anti-HBs, yielding a total of 14 (58.3%) samples that were classified as OBI and 1 (4.2%) sample was reactive for anti-HBs only. Nine samples (37.5%) did not have any serological marker owing to incomplete antibody, and they remained unclassified, as window period infection could not be excluded. Two HBV-NAT yield samples of genotype D, one with a window period and the second being an OBI had high viral load by qPCR. Conclusion: Blood products from donors with OBI carry a high risk of HBV transmission by transfusion. Because of multiple antigens and antibodies present in blood in response to HBV infection, at present there is no single test to detect the infection. In developing country such as India with high seroprevalence of HBV infection, combination of at least two tests would help us to improve the transfusion safety.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.