Burden of hepatitis C virus infection and its genotypes among the blood donors at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh

Background: Safe blood donation remains a challenge in resource limited countries. False positive serological tests lead to wastage of large number of blood units. Nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) technology has greatly enhanced the accuracy in identification of transfusions transmitted infections. Methods: The present study was undertaken to study the seroprevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and asses the concordance between seropositivity with the presence of HCV ribonucleic acid (RNA) and to know the distribution pattern of HCV genotypes in healthy blood donors. Results: Among the 9287 donors screened (88.3% males), 7153 (77%) were voluntary donors while 2134 (23%) were replacement donors. Among blood donors, 27 (0.3%) samples tested HCV seropositive. Among 27 anti-HCV positive samples only 11 (41%) were found positive for HCV RNA. Among the 5 samples subjected to sequencing, three were found to be genotype 1a while two were genotype 3a. Conclusions: Our observations suggest that implementing NAAT test for HCV screening will be helpful in minimizing false-positive test results in the Indian setting.