Abstracto

Serosurveillance of HBsAG Positive Patients in Voluntary Blood Donors

Remya R

Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood or blood products from one person to another. Blood transfusion can lead to the transfer of many infectious agents which can lead to Transfusion Transmitted Diseases. HBsAg is one of such infectious diseases, which leads to Hepatitis B Infection. The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a DNA virus and a member of the hepadna family of viruses, and is a very common virus with an estimated 300 million carriers worldwide. Only 1 - 1.5 million of these are in the United States. Hepatitis B is much more prevalent in other areas of the world such as parts of Asia including Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and some of the Mediterranean countries. Hepatitis B is a major health problem worldwide and is associated with life-threatening complications. Blood Donors are needed to be screened, or else that might make the donation unsafe for the recipient. In the present study among 8299 blood donors screened, the overall seroprevalence of HBsAg is observed to be 0.69%. 56 are male patients and remaining two is females. The seroprevalence rate in males and females is found to be 0.72% and 0.381% respectively. 58 donors had repeatedly reactive serologic test for HBsAg. It was found that 12.02% (7/58) patients were hospital staffs.