Seroprevalence of Hepatitis B Virus among blood donors in Jhapa, Nepal

Abstract

During the study period from July 2008 to April 2009,a total bloodsamplesof 2277blood donors with modal age 31– 40 years at Nepal Red Cross Society, BloodTransfusion Service (NRCS, BTS) of Bhadrapur and Damakwere screened for HBsAgusing rapid diagnostic tests kits (HEPACARDmanufactured byBiomed Industries).Serum was separated from each collected blood samples and analyzed in respectivelaboratory ofNRCS ofBhadrapurandDamak. On the studyHBsAg seroprevalence were observed 7 (0.52%) among 1340 samplesofBhadrapurand on Damak blood donors were6 (0.64%) among 937 blood samples.Overall sero-prevalence on Jhapa blood donors observed were 13 (0.57%) out of 2277.Male blood donors ofBhadrapurhad lower seroprevalence0.51% (7/1172) than themale blood donorsof Damak0.64% (6 /760)andoverall seroprevalence on Jhapamaleblood donorswas0.62%(12/1932).On the other hand female blood donors at Damakwere notobservedfor HBsAgpositive whereasat Bhadrapura single female out of 168was positive with0.59%of seroprevalenceand overallseroprevalence of only femaleatJhapa blood donors was 0.29%(1 /345).On age wise distribution highest HBsAgseroprevalence was observed on Bhadrapur male blood donors of age group 51-60years-14.2% (1/ 7) and others attributes of same age group of Damak and Bhadrapurwere negative. Similarly only 2 (0.91%) male blood donors of age group41-50 yearsat Bhadrapur were positive. Male blood donors of Bhadrapur, Damak and both siteswith the age 31- 40 had 0.40% (2/ 462), 1.51% (3 /198) and 0.75% (5 /660)seroprevalence respectively.Similarly 0.25% (1/ 395), 0.80% (3 /374) and 0.52% (4/769) are the prevalence of only male blood donors of age group 21–30 of Bhadrapur,Damak and overall of same age respectively but females of this group were not screnedpositive.The age group of 18-20 years, only a single female at Bhadrapur werescreened with seroprevalence of 3.3% (1/ 30) and the males were not observed positive. Key words: HBsAg, Sero-prevalence, Blood donors.