Comparison of Frequency three viruses HBV, HCV and HIV Based on ELISA and Western Blot Serology Methods at Blood Bank in Tehran, Iran

Hepatitis B surface (HBs), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are three important factors of blood and blood product-transmitted infections worldwide.

This study examines the prevalence of HBs, HIV, and HCV infections in the blood donor population of Tehran City, Iran, using serological techniques, specifically rapid diagnostic tests, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and Western blotting (WB).

In this descriptive and retrospective study, the documents of all blood donors who had been referred to the Tehran Blood Transfusion Organization from 2016 to 2017 were reviewed. The results of their tests were evaluated. The present investigation assessed the prevalence of HBs, HCV, and HIV infections among donors using various methods, such as rapid diagnostic tests, ELISA, and WB. The SPSS software, version 19 and the statistical tests (chi-square, oneway analysis of variance, Duncan test) were used for data analysis.

According to the results, of 159000 blood donors, 1034 positive cases were detected using rapid diagnostic tests. After implementing the ELISA and WB techniques, positive cases decreased to 743 individuals. Approximately 65.28% of the blood donors were male and 34.72% were female. A total of 511 cases (42.49%) were married while 523(58.50%) were single. The infection rate under 60 years was higher than that at >60 years. Approximately 451 cases (43.62% of the total) were labeled as unknown, indicating an unknown infection method. Meanwhile, 253(24.46%) were low-risk and 330(31.92%) were considered high-risk. However, ELISA and WB assays revealed that the prevalence rates followed a specific order. HBs exhibited the highest prevalence, followed by HCV, and then HIV. The area under curve values for HBs, HCV, and HIV were 0.945, 0.920, and 0.998, respectively.

Rapid diagnostic tests are more specific but less sensitive and are not usually used as the first test. WB and ELISA tests have a confidence percentage of over 98%. The consistency between virus prevalence among blood donors in the Tehran Blood Transfusion Center was observed using the ELISA and WB methods.