Seroprevalence of HIV infection in thalassemia patients in a tertiary care hospital
Journal Title: Medpulse International Journal of Microbiology - Year 2017, Vol 3, Issue 2
Abstract
Background: The general incidence of thalassemia trait in India varies between 3 and 17%. Children with thalassemia are susceptible to HIV because they receive multiple blood transfusions. Prevalence of HIV infection in thalassemia varies greatly worldwide, from less than 1% to more than 20%. The risk of transfusion transmission of HIV may be alarming due to high seroprevalence of anti HIV–1 viz; 0.5% in blood donors. Aim and Objectives: To study the seroprevalence of HIV infection in thalassemia patients. Materials and methods: An observational study was done at a tertiary care hospital over a period of one year (January 2014 to December 2014). 250 multitransfused thalassemia patients attending the hospital for blood transfusion were taken. Detailed history was taken after taking consent. 5ml of blood was aseptically collected and HIV tests performed as per kit literature according to NACO guidelines. Results: The predominant age group was 0-5 yrs with mean age of 8.7 years with male to female ratio of 1.27:1. Out of 250 samples, 71.6% were of thalassemia major, while 28.4% were of thalassemia intermedia. Seroprevalence of HIV was 0.4 %. One (1.2%) HIV reactive case predominantly belonged to the age group of 0-5 years and had received 0-50 blood transfusions. Conclusion: HIV infection is prevalent TTI among multiple blood transfused thalassemia patients and remains a major health problem for these patients. The low prevalence of HIV may be due to mandatory screening of all blood bags, proper selection criteria of donors, use of sensitive tests for screening all blood donors and increase awareness of people against HIV. But the window period of HIV can be further reduced by using improved technology like p24 Antigen detection or HIV viral RNA detection by RT-PCR or HIV minipool nucleic acid testing (MP-NAT).
Authors and Affiliations
Mohd Habeeb Shaikh, Dilip Turbadkar, Sujata Baveja, Anita Ramchandran, Chaya Kumar, Mridul Randive
Keywords
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- EP ID EP487317
- DOI 10.26611/1008322
- Views 59
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