Prevalence of hiv, hepatitis b, hepatitis c and syphilis in blood donors of tertiary care centre in western Maharashtra

Introduction: Timely transfusion of blood saves millions of lives, but unsafe transfusion practices puts millions of people at risk of transfusion-transmissible infections (TTIs). Monitoring of the magnitude of TTIs in blood donor is important for estimating the risk of transfusion. Aims and objective: To estimate seroprevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV, syphilis and malaria at tertiary care centre of Western Maharashtra. Methods and material: This was a retrospective study conducted in blood bank attached to tertiary care centre, Solapur of Western Maharashtra over a period of November 2017 to June 2020. All blood bag units were screened for commonest TTIs such as HIV, HBV, HCV, syphilis and malaria. Results: HBV infection (1.38%) was the commonest infection among blood donors followed by HCV (0.44%), HIV (0.17%), and Syphilis (0.08%). Conclusion: Safe blood is the universal right of every person and availability of safe blood for transfusion is a must for all recipients. Encouragement of voluntary donors along with stringent donor eligibility criteria and effective high sensitive screening methods can bring down the prevalence of TTIs.