Seroprevalence of Surrogate Markers for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV in Healthy Blood Donors at Shaikh Zayed Medical Complex, Lahore

Introduction: This project was aimed to determine the seropositivity status for Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), anti Hepatitis C (HCV) antibodies and antibodies to Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) I and II in healthy blood donors donating blood at Shaikh Zayed Hospital Lahore. Material and Methods: The relevant data was collected during a period of 28 months from 1st January 2006 till 31st March 2008. It was a cross sectional study which entailed screening of 60719 healthy donors. The donors were aged between 16 years to 45 years. There were 93.43% males and 6.57% females. Results: The seroprevalence of Anti HCV antibodies was 3.870%; for HBsAg it was 1.407%; for HIV antibodies it was 0.00658%. Our study demonstrated a higher seropositivity for HIV in healthy donor population than all of the previous reports except one with which it matched precisely. HBsAg showed a definite downwards inclination when compared with similar previous studies carried out in the last 7 years. Seroprevalence of anti HCV antibody was found to be similar when compared with previous studies and demonstrated a higher trend in large cities with a multiethnic population.