Abstract:
Blood transfusion is one of the most commonly relied upon therapies in sub-Saharan
Africa. Existing safeguards recommended include systematic screening for
transfusion-transmitted
infections and restricted voluntary nonremunerated blood
donor selection. We report the transfusion-transmitted
infection screening and notification
practice at a large urban blood transfusion centre in Dar-es-
Salaam,
Tanzania.
Between October 2016 and March 2017 anonymized records of all donors registered
at the blood transfusion unit were accessed to retrospectively note demographic information,
donor status, first-time
status, transfusion-transmitted
infection result
and notification. 6402 consecutive donors were screened for transfusion-transmitted
infections; the majority were family/replacement blood donors (88.0%) and male
(83.8%). Overall transfusion-transmitted
infections prevalence was 8.4% (95% CI 7.8-9.1),
with hepatitis B being the most prevalent infection (4.1% (95% CI 3.6-4.6)).
Transfusion-transmitted
infections were more common in family/replacement blood
donors (9.0% (95% CI 8.3-9.8))
as compared to voluntary nonremunerated blood
donor (4.1% (95% CI 2.8-5.7)).
A minority of infected-donors
were notified of a positive
result (8.5% (95% CI 6.3-11.2)).
Although transfusion-transmitted
infections are
more prevalent among family/replacement blood donors, overall risk of transfusion-transmitted
infections across all groups is considerable. In addition, existing efforts
to notify donors of a positive transfusion-transmitted
infection are poor. Future policies
must focus on improving linkage to care for newly diagnosed patients with
transfusion-transmitted
infections.
