Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Seroprevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV and HTLV I-II in a Blood Bank in Medellín, Colombia, 2019–2022

Abstract

The objective of this research was to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on seroprevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV and HTLV I-II in donors from a blood bank in Medellin, Colombia, 2019–2022. A cross-sectional analytical study was carried out with three groups: pre-pandemic with 14,879 donors; preventive isolation with 9035; and selective isolation + new normality with 26,647 subjects. Comparisons were made with Chi2 and Bonferroni adjustment, Kruskal–Wallis’ H with Dunnett’s post-hoc, prevalence ratios, and multivariate logistic regression. COVID-19 decreased donations of men, altruistic and repetitive donors, and increased the age of donors. HIV increased with the COVID-19 pandemic, while HBV, HCV, and HTLV I-II decreased. The pandemic had an independent effect on these viral infections. These findings constitute an alert about what may be happening in the general population and show the importance of improving epidemiological surveillance and the investigation of these infections.