PREVALENCE OF SELECTED BLOOD-BORNE INFECTIOUS DISEASES AMONG VOLUNTARY BLOOD DONORS IN ABHA, SAUDI ARABIA

Donated blood must be evaluated for the presence of transfusion transmitted infections (TTIs). In this study, we aimed to determine the prevalence of TTIs among blood donors in order to study the epidemiology of these organisms in the study population. We retrospectively reviewed the records of all subjects who donated blood at the Central Blood Bank in Abha, Saudi Arabia, during 2017, 2018 and 2019. All TTIs in these subjects were recorded by year and determined if they were a normal blood donor or someone donating blood for a friend or family member. The lab tests recorded to detect TTIs were: antibodies against hepatitis B virus core antigen (anti-HBc), antibodies against hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBsAg), antibodies against hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV), antibodies against human immune deficiency virus types 1 and 2 (anti-HIV1&2), antibodies against human T-lymphotropic virus types 1 and 2 (anti-HTLV-1&2), hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), Treponema pallidum hemagglutination test (TPHA) to detect syphilis and a malarial antigen (Malaria Ag) rapid detection test. A total of 25,253 subjects were included in the study; 99.39% (n = 25,098) male; 10.98% of subjects (n = 2,772) had a positive TTI test, of whom 47.01% (n = 1,303) were voluntary blood donors and 52.99% (n = 1,469) were replacement donors. The prevalences of positive TTI tests were: 5.91% (n = 1,492) for Anti-HBC, 4.56% (n = 1,151) for Anti-HBsAg, 0.48% (n = 121) for HBsAg, 0.01% (n = 3) for Anti-HCV, 0.01% (n = 2) for Anti-HIV1&2, <0.01% (n = 1) for Anti-HTLVI&2, <0.01% (n = 2) for TPHA and 0.0% (n = 0) for Malaria Ag. The prevalence of an abnormal test for hepatitis B was 10.54% (n = 2,664) of the total subjects and the prevalence of the other TTIs was 0.03% (n = 8). There were no significant differences by year in the prevalences of TTIs and there was no significant difference between usual blood donors and blood replacement donors in the prevalence of TTIs. In summary, the prevalence of TTIs did not show any significant correlation between age, gender, nationality or donor status in the three-year observation.