Abstract

According to an UNAIDS report from 2018, up to 3 million Indians are infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)¹. Prevalence of HIV in asymptomatic blood donors represents the window period of HIV infection². Despite the fall in incidence of HIV infection, the fall in incidence to prevalence ratio has slowed down over the last 18 years¹. All voluntary donors reporting to the blood bank were screened for anti-HIV 1/2 antibodies by using the appropriate enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The study was designed for duration of nine years between January 2010 to December 2018. Medical reports of the donors were accessed from the blood bank records and analyzed.  A total of 51424 voluntary blood donors were screened, of which 45685 (88.8%) were males and 5739 (11.2%) were females. The seroprevalence of HIV was 0.15%.Blood borne transmission of HIV continues to occur despite implementation of highly sensitive screening tests for HIV, suggesting these assays are still not sensitive enough to prevent all infections.

Keywords: HIV, ELISA, voluntary blood donors.