Epidemiological data on infections among blood donors in Germany 2007

The Robert Koch Institute collects and evaluates data on the prevalence and incidence of HIV, hepatitis C (HCV), hepatitis B (HBV), and syphilis infections among blood and plasma donors in Germany according to §22 of the Transfusion Act ("Transfusiongesetz"). The surveillance data permit an assessment of the occurrence of infections in the blood donor population and consequently the safety of the collected donations. This report includes data from all blood donation services in Germany for 2007. Due to the revision of the Transfusion Act in 2005, not only the number of donations but also the number of donors is now available for analysis. Nearly 550,000 donations or blood samples from new donors and more than 6.24 million donations collected from approximately 2.43 million repeat donors were tested for transfusion-relevant infections in 2007. The prevalence for HIV was 8.0/100,000, for HCV 70.0/100,000, for HBV 132.5/100,000, and for syphilis 36.8/100,000 donations. The proportion of seroconversions/100,000 donations was 0.6 for HIV, 1.1 for HCV, 0.6 for HBV, and 1.7 for syphilis. The analysis showed a very low incidence of HIV, HBV, and syphilis with marginal changes compared to previous years. The prevalence and incidence of HCV among blood donors was once again declining.