Prevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV and Syphilis in Blood Donors at Blood Bank in a Tertiary Hospital in Mandya District, Karnataka, India

Blood transfusion history dates back about 200 years. The credit of first successful human to human blood transfusion goes to Dr. James Blundell, an obstetrician, who successfully transfused 8 oz (227 ml) of blood to a patient of postpartum hemorrhage in 1818 (Mahmud, 2009). In developing countries, the prevalence of transfusiontransmitted disease is much higher and far from attaining a “zero risk” level at the present moment. With every unit of blood, there is 1% chance of transfusion-associated problems including transfusion-transmitted diseases (Widmann et al., 1985). Viral infections cause the major part of mortality and morbidity in blood recipients. The majority of known cases of post-transfusion hepatitis has been caused by hepatitis B (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) (Mahmud, 2009). International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 5 Number 9 (2016) pp. 346-354 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com