Prevalence of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen and Hepatitis C Virus Antibody and Their Risk Factors among Guilan's Volunteer Blood Donors (1998-2003)

Millions of lives are saved each year through blood transfusion. Although blood is a life-saving element, it can occasionally cause some severe diseases. This study was performed to assess the prevalence of hepatitis B and C virus infections and their known risk factors among Guilan''s volunteer blood donors from 1998 till 2003. The study population consisted of 221,508 blood donors referring to the Blood Transfusion Organization, Guilan, Iran. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis C virus antibody (HCV-Ab) detection. Positive cases were confirmed by neutralization and Recombinant Immunoblot Assay (RIBA), respectively. Known risk factors including histories of surgery, icterus, blood transfusion, endoscopy, unsafe sexual contact, etc. were extracted from available files and evaluated. 997 individuals were positive for HBsAg and 3,603 individuals for HCV-Ab. After confirmation tests, the prevalence of HBsAg and HCV-Ab was 0.45% and 1.62%, respectively. The most common risk factors were history of surgery followed by icterus in cases or their family. The prevalence of HBsAg and HCV-Ab is less than that of normal population due to careful screening carried out by staff of Blood Transfusion Organization. Regarding the high frequency of surgery history in positive cases, attending to hospital and operation room hygiene seems to be very important.