Prevalence of Chronic Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C among First Time Blood Donors in Northeast Bosnia and Herzegovina: An Estimate of Prevalence in General Population

Background: Data on the epidemiology of hepatitis B and C in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) are lacking. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) in blood samples of first time blood donors in a well-defined region of B&H. Our secondary goal was to estimate the prevalence of HBsAg and anti-HCV in the general population of the same region. Patients and Methods: We evaluated 8196 blood samples for the presence of HBsAg and/or anti-HCV, adjusted for differences in gender, and used the ratio estimation method to determine the prevalence in the general population. Results: We analyzed 1263 (15.4%) female and 6933 (84.6%) male blood donors (male-to-female ratio: 5.49 to 1). The adjusted prevalence of HBsAg among blood donors was 0.787% (95% CI = 0.535-1.038), while the prevalence of anti-HCV was 0.267% (95% CI = 0.016-0.519). There was no difference in the prevalence of HBsAg or anti-HCV between men and women. We estimate that the prevalence of HBsAg and anti-HCV in the general population is 1.057% to 1.535% and 0.29% to 0.89%, respectively. Conclusions: The prevalence of HBsAg and anti-HCV among blood donors suggests that our region has low endemicity for both hepatitis B and hepatitis C.