PREVALENCE OF HEPATITIS C VIRUS SEROPOSITIVITY AMONG BLOOD DONORS AT A TEACHING HOSPITAL IN NORTHEASTERN MALAYSIA

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) can be transmitted by blood donation. In this study we aimed to determine the prevalence of HCV seropositivity among blood donors at our institution in order to inform efforts to reduce the transmission of HCV from blood donors to patients. Study subjects were potential blood donors who presented to the Transfusion Medicine Unit at the study institution in Malaysia to donate blood during 2011-2019. We retrospectively reviewed the records of all these subjects for the following: HCV enzyme immunoassay results (EIA) (positive results confirmed by a recombinant immunoblot assay (RIA)), gender, age, ethnicity, marital status and donation frequency. A total of 87,418 subjects were included in the study consisting of 113,475 donated blood samples. More than half, 57.87% of subjects were males; 85.34% were aged ≤41 years; 59.13% were first time donors. As much as 80.12% of subjects were Malay, 12.68%% were Chinese, 1.70% were Indian and 5.50% were of other ethnicities; 62.35% were married. A total of 85 subjects (0.1%) had both a positive EIA and positive RIA HCV test. Of these 85 subjects, 76% were male. The mean (±SD) age of study subjects with HCV seropositivity was 36 (±12) (range: 18-65) years. Among subjects with HCV seropositivity, 87% were first time donors, 93% were Malay, 5% were Chinese, 1% were Indian and 1% were of other ethnicities and 62% were married. The prevalence of HCV seropositivity during 2011 and 2019 were 0.13% and 0.06% (range: 0.03-0.2%), respectively. In summary, the prevalence of HCV seropositivity among study subjects was low and the majority were male, first-time donors, Malay and married. The prevalence of HCV seropositivity among study subjects fluctuated by year. We conclude that although the prevalence of HCV seropositivity was low, it might be reduced further by carefully monitoring male, Malay, married first time donors to detect other possible risk factors that should be screened for. Further studies are needed to determine what additional questions should be asked to increase the sensitivity of the screening questionnaire for detecting higher risk donors.