National Cancer Institute experience in healthy egyptian blood donors as regards blood group frequencies and seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus & HIV : 10 year evaluation

Background: As blood safety is a major concern in Transfusion Medicine. This study attempted to characterize the safety profile of different blood donor groups in order to maximize the use of limited recruitment resources and focus on selected donor groups. The A and B antigens followed by the D antigen are considered the most important, due to their role in blood transfusion and transplantation. Methods: This is a retrospective study reviewing records of 99757 donors who randomly donated at National Cancer Institute-Blood Bank as well as external blood drives conducted from 2000 to 2005. Donor groups were divided into 6 categories according to location of the blood drives which ultimately provided 6 different socioeconomic groups. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibodies (Ab) were examined using ELISA technique. Findings were compared to those of the preceding 5 years. The incidence of different ABO groups was estimated among 102244 healthy Egyptian blood donors using gel card technique. Correlation of prevalence of infectious diseases among different blood groups was not investigated. Results: No HIV positivity was detected compared to two cases 5 years before. Over all prevalence of HBsAg was 1.30% Vs. 2.13% and HCV Ab reactivity was 4.04% Vs. 6.88% during 2000 to 2005 compared to the preceding five years; respectively. The frequency of groups A, O, B, and AB Rh-positive was 33.6% (n=34364), 27.5% (n=28127), 22% (n=22532), 9.3% (n=9554); respectively; whereas, groups A, O, B, and AB Rh-negative was 2.7% (n=2738), 2.3% (n=2381), 1.8% (n=1830), 0.7% (n=718); respectively. Conclusion: Decreasing prevalence of HBV, HCV & HIV among healthy non-paid volunteer donors over the last 5 years is mostly due to multiple hypothetical factors including; larger sample size due to increased donors’ recruitment efforts leading to more accurate results, and improvements in specificity and sensitivity of blood-borne pathogen detection. Paid donors, constituting a donor category during the preceding 5 years; were no longer accepted for donation as per Ministry of Health regulations. Lastly, the widespread utilization of Hepatitis B vaccination which is a mandatory vaccination according to Ministry of Health regulations and improved public heath awareness, shared in decreasing prevalence of HBV. The relatively higher socioeconomic classes showed lowest prevalence of viral markers, thus it should be targete