Serological detection strategy and prevalence of HIV and Viral Hepatitis B and C in blood donors in Yaoundé Cameroon

Abstract

BACKGROUND. The high prevalence of transfusion-transmissible infections (TTIs) is the most important challenge of safe blood supply in Cameroon. The seroprevalence of Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Hepatitis C virus (HCV), Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was determined among prospective blood donors at blood bank Yaoundé University Teaching Hospital (YUTH), Yaoundé, Cameroon. MATERIAL AND METHODS. Blood donors were consecutively screened for HBV, HIV and HCV infections (Murex HBsAg Version 3, Murex HIV Ag/Ab Combination, and Murex HCV Ag/Ab Combination [DiaSorin]). Additional HBV testing including anti-HBc (Monolisa Anti-HBc PLUS; BIO-RAD) were performed. HIV and HCV serology were confirmed with HIV BLOT 2.2 (Genelabs Diagnostic) and INNO-LIA HCV (Fujirebio), respectively. RESULTS. In total, 1.162 donors were serially included in the study. Screening for viral infections showed that 91 (7.80%) of total sample donations were reactive for HBsAg+, 14 (1.2%) for HIV+, 11 (0.95%) for HCV+, and 1 (0.08%) for HBsAg+ and /HIV+. Screening samples for total Anti-HBc IgG+IgM revealed that 613(52.75%) samples were reactive. All of the 91 samples positive HBsAg positive were also positive for HBcAb. In the 1071 HBsAg negative participants, the prevalence of HBcAb was 48.7% (n=522). In seronegative participants for HBsAg, HCV and HIV, the prevalence of HBcAb was 48.8% (n=511). Testing of 13 HIV and 9 of HCV reactive samples revealed that 4 and 3 were confirmed positive by western blot, respectively. DISCUSSION. This study clearly showed a high prevalence of viral infections among Cameroonian blood donors at the YUTH. Strategies to increase voluntary and regular donors should be intensified to improve the medical selection of blood donors and reduce the frequency of TTIs found in donated blood. The confirmatory results of HIV and HCV underline the need to re-evaluate viral infection prevalence in Cameroonian blood donors.