Seroprevalence of HBV, HCV and HIV infections among college going first time voluntary blood donors.
OBJECTIVE
College going first time voluntary blood donors were tested for HBV, HCV and HIV infections, to know the seroprevalence of these diseases among them.


METHODS
Blood donation camps were organized at 18 colleges and universities of the city and a total of 612 samples from first time donors were tested for HbsAg, anti-HCV, anti-HIV 1, 2 antibodies on Abbott Diagnostic systems.


RESULTS
Thirteen voluntary blood donors (2.21% with 95% confidence limit 1.2-3.52%) were HbsAg and 3 (0.5% with 95% confidence limit 0.12-1.33%) were anti HCV positive. None of the donors was positive for HIV infection.


CONCLUSIONS
Seroprevalence of HBV, HCV and HIV infections among college going students is significantly low (<3.0%) than 30% seroprevalence among paid donors and 7% among family/replacement blood donors. There is a need to educate, motivate and recruit college going students to regularly donate blood to ensure relatively safe supply of blood for transfusion services (JPMA 50:269, 2000).
Mujeeb
Syed Abdul
SA
Blood Transfusion Service, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi.
Aamir
Kausar
K
Mehmood
Khalid
K