Trend of Donor Rejection Due to the Incidence of Hepatitis B and C Viruses, Human Immunodefiency Virus (HIV 1&2) and Treponema pallidum in Ghana: A Retrospective Study

Objectives: This research sought to determine the annual trend of donor rejection due to the incidence of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV 1&2) and Treponema pallidum (syphilis) among blood donors in Ghana.

Place and Duration of Study: This retrospective study was conducted on all donors who presented for allogeneic blood donation from January 2014 to December 2017 at Ashanti Bekwai Municipal Hospital.

Methods: Laboratory records containing donors’ information from January 2014 to December 2017 were reviewed. The annual incidence of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV 1&2) and Treponema pallidum among the donors were statistically computed using Graphpad® Prism. The difference between the reactive and nonreactive groups was computed using two-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s post hoc test.

Results: In general, 18.1% (347/1922) tested positive for at least one of the infections, 5.98% (115/1922), 2.2% (42/1922), 2.3% (44/1922), 7.6% (146/1922) tested positive for HBsAg, HCV, HIV 1&2 and Treponema pallidum respectively. Specifically, from 2014-2017, the incidence of the individual diseases among the blood donors were as follows: HBsAg; 6.2, 7.5, 5.7, and 4.0%, HCV; 0.9, 2.4, 2.8 and 2.7%, HIV; 2.4, 1.7, 2.8 and 2.5%, and Treponema pallidum; 6.7, 9.5, 6.3 and 7.7% respectively.

Conclusion: The annual incidence of HBsAg, HCV, Treponema pallidum and HIV 1&2 among blood donors at Ashanti Bekwai Municipal hospital, Ghana is high. This warrant the need for healthcare authorities to consider implementing policies that will make it possible for the blood bank services to be able to reveal the cause of donor rejection to the deferred donor so that immediate interventions can be made to salvage them from the long-term effect of the infections and to also prevent them from communicating the infections to others.