The prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection among voluntary blood donors in mainland China: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection through transfusion has been an imperative challenge for blood safety. Despite the implementation of screening strategies, there was still the residual risk of transfusion‐transmitted HIV. Considering that the prevalence of HIV infection in blood donors is significant for evaluating blood safety and potential risks to the population, meta‐analysis was applied to investigate the HIV prevalence among voluntary blood donors during the past 27 years to characterize the epidemiology and related risk factors of HIV in blood donors. The literature concerning the HIV screening reactive rate and prevalence in Chinese voluntary blood donors was collected through the systematic searching of four electronic databases. After integrating data, following the Preferred Reporting of Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses guidelines, data manipulation and statistical analyses were conducted by Stata 12.0. The results indicated that overall HIV prevalence was 0.0178% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.0169%−0.0187%) with a remarkable rise, which varied from 2000 (0.0034%) to 2015 (0.027%). The HIV window period infection rate was 0.0475‱ (95% CI, 0.0304‱−0.0646‱). Importantly, subgroup analysis revealed the heterogeneity in gender, occupations, education and donation frequency. With the effective control of HIV transmission through blood, HIV prevalence declined in China to some extent in recent years, and the characteristics of HIV epidemic in some provinces have drastically changed. However, remaining relatively high HIV prevalence and overall increased trend of HIV prevalence since the 21th century demonstrates the potential residual risk of blood transfusion, and the whole society is supposed to pay close attention to HIV infection.