FREQUENCY OF HEPATITIS B AND HEPATITIS C IN HEALTHY BLOOD DONORS OF NWFP: A SINGLE CENTER EXPERIENCE

Objective: To determine the frequency of hepatitis B and hepatitis C in asymptomatic healthy blood donors.Material and Methods: A prospective study was conducted in the department of Pathology, Rehman Medical Institute, Peshawar from April 2002 to March 2003. A total of 4000 healthy blood donors were selected. Blood samples were collected for screening of HBs Ag and anti HCV antibodies using IMX or Axsym, MEIA technology (Abbott, USA).Results: Even after strict selection of healthy donors 1.9% were found to be reactive for hepatitis B and 2.2% were found to be reactive for hepatitis C. The rate of incidence of hepatitis C was higher in blood group B negative (6.81%) while the rate of incidence of hepatitis B was higher in donors with blood group B positive (2.47%). Screened blood bags received from other transfusion centers showed higher rates (4.27%) of hepatitis viral infections.Conclusion: These results indicate that most of the patients suffering from hepatitis B and hepatitis C do not realize that they have got such deadly viruses in their body and can transmit it to non-infected healthy individuals via different parenteral routes including blood transfusion. The rate of infection of hepatitis B and C found in this study is low compared to other regional studies. One possible explanation could be the introduction of pre-donation filtration by questionnaire method which has been found to be an effective tool in addition to routine virological screening using high quality standard methods.