Retrospective Study of Hepatitis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Co-Infections among Blood Donors in Umuahia, South East, Nigeria

Abstract

Transmission of blood-borne transfusion infections in developing countries remains a significant risk because of limited access to personal protective equipment and vaccination. This retrospective study estimated the seroprevalence and epidemiological features of HbV, HCV, and HIV infections among asymptomatic blood donors attending the Abia State Specialist Hospital and Diagnostic Centre (ASSHDC), Umuahia, Nigeria. A total of 300 individuals participated in this study. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the ASSHDC. All experiments in this study were performed in accordance with standard assay procedures. This study identified blood donors between 20 and 59 years old, with an average age of 39.5 years. Overall co-infection seropositivity shows that 10.3% (31/300) of the donors tested positive for anti-HIV antibodies. The seroprevalence of HBsAg and HcV antibodies among donors was 23.6% and 7.3%, respectively. HCV seroprevalence was lower among HIV- infected females (1.6%) than among male (8.0%) donors, while HbV seroprevalence was higher among male (11%) than female (1.3%) donors. Co-infections varied by age and gender. The prevalence of HBsAg and HcV antibodies was moderate (21.3% HBsAg, 6.6% HcV) in gender stratification. The co-infection of HIV and HbV was uniformly low (3.3%) in this study. Co-infection of HIV/HbV and HcV in blood donors was unstable, varying largely among age groups of cohorts. Amongst the samples assayed, 6.3% (21/300) were dually seropositive for HBsAg and HcV. Co-infections of seropositive HBsAg donors with HIV were more common than co-infections with HIV/HcV This study showed that transfusion-transmitted infections are still significant in Abia State.