Transfusion Transmitted Infections among Blood Donors at a Tertiary Health Facility in Southwest, Nigeria

Abstract

It was a major breakthrough for human medicine when Landsteiner discovered the ABO blood group system. But with the discovery of ABO and Rhesus systems, this major hindrance to safe blood transfusion- and by extension surgery- was effectively put behind humanity. Centuries after this, humanity is faced another kind of challenge to safe blood transfusion- transfusion transmitted infections (TTIs), particularly in developing nations of the world. Though lots of infections are transmissible through transfusion, the focus of this study was HIV, HBV, HCV and syphilis. This study aimed at determining the prevalence of these TTIs (HIV, HBV, HCV and syphilis) among intending blood donors at a tertiary health facility in Ekiti State, southwest, Nigeria. The data of 150 intending blood donors at the said tertiary health facility were retrospectively retrieved and analysed. One hundred and twenty (80%) of the subjects were males, while 30 (20%) were females. The age of the subjects ranged between 18 and 55 years. Thirty-four (22.7%) of the subjects had TTIs, while 116 (77.3%) were negative to all the TTIs of interest for this study (HIV, HBV, HCV and Syphilis). Out of the 34 subjects who had TTIs, 2 (1.3%) tested positive for HIV, 18 (12%) for HBV; 10 (6.7%) for HCV and 4 (2.7%) for syphilis. Twenty-nine (85.3%) of the subjects who had TTIs were males, while 5 (14.7%) were females. An overall TTI sero-prevalence of 2.7% is rather on the high side and should serve as a wake-up call to all concerned authorities in the State to design enlightenment programme that will reduce the sero-prevalence of TTIs.

Sero-Epidemiology of Transfusion Transmissible Hepatitis B, C and E among Blood Donors in Ekiti, Southwestern Nigeria: A Cross-sectional Study

“…HBsAg seroprevalence in this study was lower than 6.2% and 12.0% hepatitis B surface antigenaemia published in 2015 and 2020 by Adekoya-Benson et al and Daramola et al respectively at the State-owned tertiary health facility [33][34]. The wide difference between HBsAg seroprevalence reported in this study and that of Daramola et al (2020) [34] could probably be due to differences in the categories of blood donors used and the study design. Retrospective data of replacement and commercial blood donors were used in the latter study while prospective data of voluntary and replacement blood donors were used in this study.…”

“…The anti-HCV seroprevalence in this study was similar to 1.7% reported by Adekoya-Benson et al (2015) [33] in Ekiti state tertiary health facility in 2015. It was lower than 6.7% recently reported by Daramola et al (2020) [34] in the same facility in Ekiti, 3.6% reported by Okoroiwu et al (2018) [31] in Calabar and 6.0% reported by Buseri et al (2009) [3] in Osogbo respectively. However, it was higher than pooled seroprevalence of 0.8% reported by Lake et al (2021) [36] in a systematic and metaanalysis review among blood donors in Ethiopia and 0.39% reported by Macroo et al (2013) [37] in India.…”

“…Detection of HBsAg in serum or plasma of blood donors over six months is an evidence of chronic carrier or chronic immune active hepatitis B infection [26] and the seropositive blood donors ran the risk of developing consequent cirrhosis and in advanced cases, hepatocellular carcinoma [26]. HBsAg seroprevalence in this study was lower than 6.2% and 12.0% hepatitis B surface antigenaemia published in 2015 and 2020 by Adekoya-Benson et al and Daramola et al respectively at the State-owned tertiary health facility [33][34]. The wide difference between HBsAg seroprevalence reported in this study and that of Daramola et al (2020) [34] could probably be due to differences in the categories of blood donors used and the study design.…”