Use of Blood Donor Screening to Monitor Prevalence of HIV and Hepatitis B and C Viruses, South Africa

Vermeulen, Marion; Swanevelder, Ronél; Chowdhury, Dhuly; Ingram, Charlotte; Reddy, Ravi Shankar; Bloch, Evan M.; Custer, Brian; Murphy, Edward L.

doi:10.3201/eid2309.161594

Cited by 23 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Despite the 2.6% HIV sero-positivity in our study which is lower than from several sub-Saharan Africa countries, where HIV prevalence ranges from 3 to 5% [44], it is much higher than 0.1% Jijiga Ethiopian Somali region [19], a 1.6% magnitude from both Yrgalem and Hawassa studies, South Ethiopia [20, 45] 0.18, 1 and 1.13% reports from Eritrea, Nyala Hospital western Sudan and South Africa respectively [34, 35, 46], 0.4% in Khartoum [47], and from Egypt in which it was no cases reported [48]. The higher report from our study is probably due to the rise in seropositivity of HIV among the general population recently, the highest geographic distributions of HIV infection in the study area which is similar to Ethiopian national data [49].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 48%

Seroprevalence and associated risk factors for HIV, Hepatitis B and C among blood Donors in South Gondar District blood Bank, Northwest Ethiopia

et al. 2019

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Background Despite the undeniable significance of blood transfusion in saving a millions life in emergencies and medical treatment, the quality of blood faced challenges from transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs) such as HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), HBV (hepatitis B virus) and HCV (hepatitis C virus). This cross-sectional study was undertaken with the aim of determining the seroprevalence and risk factors of HIV, HBV, and HCV among blood donors. Methods An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted at Debre Tabor district hospital from January 2017 to February 2018. Blood samples from volunteer donors collected; serum separated and screened with ELISA tests for detection of anti-HIV, hepatitis-B surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-HCV. Fishers’ exact test was employed to see the association between variables as well logistic regression tests were applied to identify potential risk factors. P -value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Result A total of 310 volunteer donors were included in the study. The proportion of blood donors having at least one viral-TTI was 12.6% while the magnitudes of HIV, HBV, and HCV were 2.6, 5.8 and 4.2%, respectively. Educational status and multiple sexual behaviors are significantly associated with HIV acquisition whilst marital status was significantly associated with HBsAg seropositivity. Conclusion Seroprevalence of transfusion-transmissible infections was high and alarming therefore proper screening of donated blood with test methods having better diagnostic performance should be employed. Also encouragement of blood donation from voluntary donors and creating awareness on the general public regarding HIV, HBsAg and HCV transmission and prevention should be strengthen.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 48%

Seroprevalence and associated risk factors for HIV, Hepatitis B and C among blood Donors in South Gondar District blood Bank, Northwest Ethiopia

et al. 2019

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“…This decrease is expected and results from many factors including the implementation by the NBTS of stringent interventions recommended by WHO to exclude high risk potential blood donors and HBV/HIV treatment programs. Similar trends have been observed in neighboring countries [25,26]. However, these data may not be applicable to the general population as they excluded persons vaccinated at birth who were less than 16 years during the time of study and high-risk populations who could not donate blood [27].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…In SSA, the median risk of being infected with HBV from a blood transfusion has been estimated at 4.3 infections per 1,000 units, and 28,595 HBV infections per year are estimated to occur [5][6][7]. The transmission risk of HBV remains even after HBV NAT has been performed on each donated blood unit [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular characterization of hepatitis B virus in blood donors in Botswana

et al. 2018

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Hepatitis B virus (HBV) poses a significant threat to blood transfusion safety in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where allogeneic blood donations are screened serologically, and more sensitive nucleic acid tests (NATs) are utilized infrequently. HBV strains circulating among blood donors in Botswana are not yet characterized. We designed a cross-sectional study to determine the HBV subgenotypes and prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) among blood donors between November 2014 and October 2015. A total of 12,575 blood donations were screened for HBsAg and 50 consecutive plasma samples were selected for genotyping from confirmed HBsAg +

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“…Furthermore, despite a historically safe blood/ blood products supply system, haemophiliacs and those who received blood/blood products before 1992 were at risk, with 17% of our cohort sharing this as a risk factor. [16][17][18][19] Additionally, we have demonstrated that unsafe medical practices are a risk factor (10%). In a significant proportion of patients (26%) no clear mode of acquisition was identified.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct-acting antiviral therapy for hepatitis C: The initial experience of the University of Cape Town/Groote Schuur Hospital Liver Clinic, South Africa

et al. 2020

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Globally, ~71 million people are actively viraemic with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), with an estimated 10.15 million chronically infected in sub-Saharan Africa. [1] An estimated 600 000 South Africans have chronic hepatitis C, although the uncertainty intervals are wide. [2] Concomitantly, accurate prevalence data in the general population are generally lacking, although important data are emerging with regard to a high prevalence in high-risk or key populations. [3] The seroprevalence in the general population is thought to be <1%, and data from the blood transfusion services consistently point towards a low seroprevalence. [4] Key risk populations include people who inject/injected drugs (PWID), men who have sex with men (MSM) and the incarcerated population. A prospective study in HIV-positive MSM in Cape Town noted a hepatitis C seroprevalence of 5.6% and 0.5% in the MSM and non-MSM groups, respectively. [5] In a smaller retrospective Cape Town study, 27% of injecting MSM were HCV antibody-positive; 37.5% were HIV co-infected. [6] More recently, a large countrywide seroprevalence study of key populations found a 45% seroprevalence of HCV in PWID; 24.7% were HIV co-infected. [3] Of MSM, 2.7% were anti-HCV-positive and 40% HIV co-infected. Notably, HCV seroprevalence among sex workers was extremely low at 0.1%, but HIV and hepatitis B rates were high. 2019 marked 30 years since HCV was sequenced and cloned for the first time in 1989. [7] In 1991, 3-5 times weekly subcutaneous interferon for HCV demonstrated poor outcomes. Adding ribavirin improved response rates. In 2001, weekly pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN) plus ribavirin showed significantly improved outcomes. [8,9] Overall, the achievement of a sustained virological response (SVR), defined as the absence of detectable HCV RNA at least 24 weeks This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.

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Use of Blood Donor Screening to Monitor Prevalence of HIV and Hepatitis B and C Viruses, South Africa

Cited by 23 publications

References 12 publications

Seroprevalence and associated risk factors for HIV, Hepatitis B and C among blood Donors in South Gondar District blood Bank, Northwest Ethiopia

Seroprevalence and associated risk factors for HIV, Hepatitis B and C among blood Donors in South Gondar District blood Bank, Northwest Ethiopia

Molecular characterization of hepatitis B virus in blood donors in Botswana

Direct-acting antiviral therapy for hepatitis C: The initial experience of the University of Cape Town/Groote Schuur Hospital Liver Clinic, South Africa

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