Background: Transfusion of blood and blood components, as a specialized modality of patient management saves millions of lives worldwide each year and reduces morbidity. Transfusion-transmitted infectious (TTIs) diseases remain a major topic of interest for those involved in blood safety. Screening of TTIs among blood donors is helpful to observe the seroprevalence of HCV among healthy blood donors.
Material and Method: A cross-sectional study based on observance of records was conducted at Blood Bank of tertiary care hospital in Gujarat. Total 7,935 donors were screened over the period of year 2010 to 2017 according the guideline of WHO.
Results: Blood units were collected from replacement donors (54.1%) and voluntary blood donors (45.9%). Male donors (97.4%) outnumbered female donors. Seroprevalence for HBV was found to be 0.98%.
Conclusion: Replacement donors were higher in number than the voluntary donors. Stringent measures need to be taken on urgent basis including dissemination of information, mandatory screening protocol of blood and blood products with test having sensitivity and specificity, better donor recruitment, advocacy of voluntary donation, proper sterilization of instruments, proper disposal of contaminated material, and immunization of people at risk, particularly health care workers.
