Nadir Ali, Mansoor Nadeem, Ashraf Qamar, Ayaz Hussain Qureshi, Aamir Ejaz.
Frequency of Hepatitis C virus antibodies in blood donors in Combined Military Hospital, Quetta.
Pak J Med Sci Jan ;19(1):41-4.

Objective: To assess the frequency of anti-HCV antibodies in blood donors at Combined Military Hospital, Quetta with vigilant donor selection. Design: This is a prospective study to assess the frequency of anti-HCV antibodies while following donor selection criteria vigilantly, keeping in view that high-risk groups likely to be positive for anti-HCV antibodies are excluded on the basis of initial interview. All donors were subjected to initial interview by a hematologist. Blood samples were tested with 3rd generation ELISA test for anti-HCV reactivity. Settings: All voluntary blood donors reporting to blood bank CMH, Quetta from 1st January 2000 to 31st January 2001 have been included in the study. Main outcome: Determination of frequency of anti-HCV antibodies in well-selected blood donors. Results: A total of 1635 blood donors were interviewed. All donors were male having age between 18-48 years. 135 donors (8.26%) were rejected or deferred. Of these 60(3.7%) were deferred due to recent history of jaundice; other causes of deferral or rejection were surgery (1.04%), tattooing or body piercing (0.92%), injury including road side accidents (1.9%), drug abuse (0.49%) and history of past transfusion (0.24%). 1500 donors were bled and tested. 200 of these donors were repeat donors and 1300 first time donors. 24 of the first time donors (1.85%) tested positive for anti-HCV, while 4(2%) of the repeat donors also tested positive. The overall frequency was found to be 28 (1.87%). Conclusion: Healthy donor selection is of paramount importance in blood banking. Vigilant donor selection, with a preference for younger donors decreases frequency of anti-HCV positivity. Further studies are needed to support this observation.

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