Abstract
Background: According to WHO, 12 million Indians are suffering from hepatitis C. Prevalence of HCV in healthy blood donors represents prevalence of carrier state in the population. High rate of anti-HCV antibody (anti-HCV) positivity, which is seen in individuals who are transfused multiple times, is an indicator of risk of contracting HCV by blood transfusion 1.
Methods: All voluntary donors reporting to the blood bank were screened for HCV antibodies by using the appropriate enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The study was designed for duration of seven years between January 2008 to December 2014. Medical reports of the donors were accessed from the blood bank records and analyzed.
Results: A total of 5606 voluntary blood donors were screened, of which 5120 (91.33%) were males and 486 (8.67%) were females. The seroprevalence of Hepatitis C was 1.49%.
Conclusion: Blood borne transmission of hepatitis C virus continues to occur despite implementation of highly sensitive screening tests for HCV, suggesting these assays are still not sensitive enough to prevent all infections.
Key words: Hepatitis C, blood donors.
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DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v4i11.35
