Séroprévalence of HIV : hepatitis and syphilis among blood doners in Bukavu, DR Congo

Introduction: Blood safety remains the main goal for any blood bank. It involves strict monitoring of contamination by infectious disease agents, including viruses, bacteria and parasites. Our study aimed to determine the seroprevalence and risk factors of HIV, HCV, HBV, and syphilis infections among blood donors.
Method: The study was carried out on transfusion blood collected for all donors during a two-year period, from January 2010 to December 2011 in the Panzi Hospital. Data were analyzed using the statistical package EPI INFO 3.7. Comparisons were made using the Pearson chi-square (χ2) test in case of prevalences, and using the t-test in case of ages. A P value of less than 0.05 was set as threshold for significant difference.
Results: Four thousand and sixty one blood donors were involved in the present study. Their meanSEM age was 31.4  0.19 years. The female/male ratio was 45/55, and of all donors, 67% were irregular (1st donation) The overall seroprevalence rates of HIV, HBV, HCV, and syphilis were 0.3 %, 2.0 %, 0.4 % and 0.2 %, respectively. One hundred and fourteen donors (2.8 %) had serological evidence of infection with at least one pathogen. None was positive for more than two infectious agents. Prevalence was similar among female vs male donors, except for T. pallidum which was found only in 8 males.
There was no age difference between patients testing positive vs those who were negative either globally for any positive value (P = 0.55; two-tailed t-test) or for any specific test (P: 0.32, 0.60, 0.66, and 0.93 for HIV, HBV, HCV and syphilis, respectively).
Discussion: This study showed the efficiency of sufficient sensitization to reduce the prevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV, and syphilis among blood donors.
Blood safety requires rigor in the selection of blood donors and their regular monitoring to reduce the risk of infection transmission.
Key words: HIV, Hepatitis, Syphilis, transfusion.