[Retrospective evaluation of HBsAg, anti-HCV, anti-HIV and syphilis reagin antibody seropositivity in blood donors at the Trabzon Farabi Hospital]

Abstract

Transfusion of blood and blood products is a widely used method for therapy in medicine, however it may result with the transmission of infectious agents from donor to recipient. In order to achieve safe blood transfusions and to minimize post-transfusion infections, several screening tests for infectious agents are routinely done all around the world as well as in our country. In this study, HBsAg, anti-HCV, anti-HIV and syphilis reagin antibody tests results have been retrospectively evaluated for 33.766 blood donors during January 1, 1997 to December 31, 2000 in Blood Center of Farabi Hospital, Black Sea Technical University. Testing for HBsAg, anti-HIV and anti-HCV has been done by using commercially available micro and/or macro enzyme immunoassays, and syphilis reagin antibody test by latex agglutination (RPR) method. The indeterminate results were confirmed by retesting of sera with microparticle enzyme immunoassay and Western blot methods. As a result, in 1331 (3.94%) subjects HBsAg, in 250 (0.74%) subjects anti-HCV, and in 161 (0.47%) subjects RPR were found positive. Twenty samples which have had the results in gray-zone for anti-HIV, have been found negative with the confirmation tests.