Prevalence and Trends of Transfusion-Transmissible Infections and Study of Confidential Unit Exclusion among Blood Donors in Kurdistan Province of Iran

Background and Aims: Evaluation of the prevalence of transfusion-transmissible infections (TTIs) in blood donors is a valuable index of donor selection and blood safety. This study was conducted to explore the prevalence and trends of TTIs markers and study of confidential unit exclusion )CUE) option among blood donors in Kurdistan province in the west of Iran. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis on all volunteer donors from 2007 to 2014. Serologic tests were performed to detect TTIs markers. The seropositive results were confirmed using the confirmatory assays. Results: Of 197568 cases of the blood donated during 2007 and 2014, 0.29% was positive for Hepatitis B surface antigen, 0.006% for anti-human immunodeficiency virus and 0.06% for anti-hepatitis C virus. The prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus remained stably below 0.02% during the study period whereas the prevalence of Hepatitis B surface antigen showed a downward trend over the period of 8 years. The trend of hepatitis C virus infection frequency had increasing patterns from 2007 to 2009 and decreasing patterns thereafter to 0.05%. CUE was chosen in 1442 (0.7%) donations. Out of this number, 864 (59.9%) were first time blood donors and 578 (40.08%) repeat donors. CUE-positive donations had significantly higher risk of TTIs markers (p< 0.000). Conclusions: The prevalence rate of viral infections has been reduced to low levels in blood donations over the 8 years. Moreover, CUE is considered an effective option for identifying donors with increased risk of TTIs markers.