Changes in transfusion-transmissible infection prevalence and demographics among US blood donors during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the US blood supply. We compared blood donor demography and infectious disease prevalence before and during the pandemic using a large multicenter database.

Methods: Data were categorized as "Before COVID-19" (March 2018-February 2020) or "During COVID-19" (March 2020-February 2022). Donor demographics, donation frequency, and infectious marker prevalence of HIV, HBV, and HCV were compared for the two time periods. The odds of a donor testing positive for these infections among the two time periods were calculated using multivariable logistic regression.

Results: Our study assessed a total of 26,672,213 donations including 13,430,380 before and 13,241,833 during COVID-19. There were significantly more donations from donors who were female, aged 40 and older, white, and repeat, during COVID-19. Donation frequency comparison quantified the increase in donations from donors who were white, female, older, and repeat during the pandemic. The prevalence of HIV and HCV decreased significantly during COVID-19 compared to before, but not for HBV. For HIV, the adjusted odds of infection during the pandemic did not differ but for HBV, the odds were significantly more likely during the pandemic and were significantly lower for HCV.

Discussion: Demographics and infectious disease marker prevalence changed during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Prevalence of each infection in the donor population will continue to be monitored to determine if changes were specific to the pandemic period.

Keywords: COVID‐19; HBV; HCV; HIV; blood donors; demography.

Figure 1.

The difference and percent change between the number of donations before and during COVID-19 by donor demographic and characteristic category. ¹Bars extending to the right of zero indicate observed increases as compared to bars to the left which indicate losses.