Abstract

Objective: To determine trends in the prevalence of major transfusion-transmissible infectious pathogens among blood donors in the southwest Ethiopia. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted by reviewing records of all blood donors at Jimma zone blood bank center from 2010 to 2015. Data were analyzed in an undisclosed way with respect to the results of serological screening for common infectious diseases like hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), HIV, and syphilis. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine risk factors associated with transfusion-transmissible infections. P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: From the total of 10 733 individuals who donated blood between 2010 and 2015, 7 608/10 733 (70.8%) were males, and 9 162/10 733 (85.4%) of the donors were volunteers. Overall, 388/10 733 (3.61%) blood units had serological evidence of infections for at least one pathogen. The seroprevalence of HBV, HCV, HIV and syphilis was 328/10 733 (3.05%), 22/10 733 (0.20%), 23/10 733 (0.21%) and 15/10 733 (0.14%), respectively. A majority of infections [328/388 (84.5%)] detected was hepatitis B surface antigen, with statistically significant difference in trends from year to year (χ2 = 21.90, P = 0.001). The HCV prevalence has steadily increased from 2/1 414 (0.14%) in 2013 to 13/3756 (0.35%) in 2015 and also replacement donors were more likely to be infected by HCV (crude odds ratio = 5.1, 95% confidence interval: 1.2–22.2, P = 0.029) when compared with the volunteers. Conclusions: Trends in the seroprevalence of HBV and HIV during the study period were declining, while the seroprevalence of HCV was rising among blood donors. Volunteer donors were found to be relatively safer as compared to replacement donors. Efforts should be designed to the introduction of screening for antibody to hepatitis B core antigen and nucleic acid testing to increase the detection rate of these infections and prevent transmission.

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