title: Prevalence of markers of transfusion transmissible diseases in voluntary and replacement blood donors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Transfusion of safe blood requires a safe donor. The voluntary donor movement encompasses the concept of a donor who is free from transfusion transmissible infections. It is now mandatory to screen blood for hepatitis B surface antigen, antibodies to HIV-1 and HIV-2, antibodies to hepatitis C virus, syphilis and malarial parasites.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 1996 and 2002, 235 461 donors were screened for markers of hepatitis B virus, and HIV-1 and HIV-2 using commercially available ELISA kits, VDRL test for syphilis and Geimsa stain for the malarial parasite, respectively. A total of 56 476 donors were screened for hepatitis C virus antibodies from June 2001 to December 2002, using third-generation ELISA kits.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proportion of voluntary donors increased from 47% to 56% during the study period. The prevalence of HIV showed a steady increase from 0.16% in 1996 to 0.3% in 2002. The prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen decreased from 1.55% to 0.99%. VDRL reactivity did not show any trend and ranged between 0.11% and 0.66%. Hepatitis C virus antibodies showed a prevalence of 0.4%. The prevalence of all markers was significantly less in voluntary donors. Among the voluntary donors, transfusion transmissible disease markers were significantly less in student donors as compared to other donors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A change-over to a voluntary donor service would considerably reduce the number of infectious donors and, among voluntary donors, student donors are the safest.
authors.affiliation: Department of Transfusion Medicine, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh 160012, India.
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Ramandeep
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cheema
authors.forename: Meenu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vajpayee
authors.forename: Usha
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Sudarshan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Neelam
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Marwaha
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Agnihotri
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D001782:Blood Donors; D017848:Blood-Borne Pathogens; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008288:Malaria / Q000097:blood; D015995:Prevalence; D012449:Safety; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D065227:Transfusion Reaction
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D015415:Biomarkers