Seroprevalence of the Blood Borne Infection in Blood Donors: Our 11 year (2001-2011) experience in a tertiary care teaching hospital at Amritsar (Punjab).

Screening of blood before transfusion is an effective strategy to reduce transfusion transmitted infections (TTI) . Limited surveillance data exist in both for the state of Punjab and for the city of Amritsar for the seroprevalence of Hepatitis B and C , HIV and Syphilis. Material and methods- This was a retrospective study done on blood donors at a tertiary care hospital in (Amritsar)Punjab. Blood bank records were retrieved to calculate seroprevalence rates of various TTI’s (stand alone or in combination) over a period of 11 years (2001 to 2011). Results-A total of 56915 donors were screened of which 1935 (5.39%) donors had seroprevalence for TTI’s . Individual seroprevalence rates of HIV, HBV, HCV, Syphilis were 0.16%, 0.75 %, 1.79 % and 0.67 % respectively. Hence ,HCV was the most commonly recorded TTI over a period of 11 years . In the present study only 0.036% donors had evidence of multiple infections . Conclusion- Although the overall rates of all the TTI’s were comparable with work of other researchers, but it was noted that the seroprevalence rates for HCV and VDRL fluctuated greatly during the study period while the seroprevalence of HIV and HBsAg were relatively consistent . The study thus concludes that the prevalence rates of HCV & VDRL need to be studied for proper survillence and necessary steps taken for ultimate goal of providing safe blood to reciepients.