Prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and syphilis in blood donors in a tertiary health facility in south eastern Nigeria

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Blood donation is an important life-saving intervention in health care services in sub-Saharan Africa. Unfortunately, most centers in the region have not embraced component blood therapy because of resources limitations,hence, whole blood transfusion is still the rule. The major challenges of blood transfusion medicine in the region is the screening of prospective blood donors, a very important inclusive criterion in blood donors selection and the predominant use of remunerated (commercial) instead of voluntary (unpaid) blood donors in the blood banks. This retrospective study aimed at determining the seroprevalence of the major infective agents (such as HIV, HBV ,HCV ,etc) transmissible via blood among prospective blood donors in a south eastern Nigerian tertiary health center. A deep insight on blood transfusion practice in the region , the weaknesses and strength could be derived from this study. In conclusion, this study showed a low prevalence of transfusion transmissible infectious agents (HIV, HBV ,HCV & Syphilis) possibly due to the fact that most of the prospective blood donors who were mainly commercial blood donors in this case were aware of their status.

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