Prevalence of hepatitis C and its risk factors in blood donors at Shiraz transfusion center

Introduction: Infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) may be accompanied by serious long-term sequel such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. One of the transmission routes of HCV is by blood or blood products transfusion. The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence and risk factors of HCV among blood donors and their motivation for blood donation in Shiraz Blood Transfusion Organization in 2007. Materials and Methods: This case control study was performed on the blood donors who attended for blood donation in Shiraz blood transfusion center between January 2007 and January 2008. A number of 150 donors with HCV infection, documented serologically with ELISA and RIBA test, were considered as cases and 300 donors with negative result for HCV in the screening tests were defined as controls. A questionnaire including the flowing three sections was prepared: 1- demographic status 2- motivation for blood donation 3- risk factors. Samples were randomly selected from blood donors. They were invited to enroll the study and filled up the questionnaires. Results: Between Jan 2007 and Jan 2008, a total number of 93987 persons presented for blood donation to the department, of which 203 had a positive result for HCV test. Therefore, the prevalence of HCV was 0.21 % among the blood donors. 10.5 % of these donors had a positive result for HIV test as well however, none of them were positive for HBV infection. HCV infection was more prevalent in male, married, first-time and low educated blood donors (P0.05). The motivation of control was more for altruistic reason and in case group was more for positive effect on their health and check up. The transmission risk of HCV infection was greater in blood donors who had a previous history of IV drug abuse in compared with those were not drug addict (OR=62.7). In addition, the transmission risk of HCV infection was greater in blood donors who had unsafe sexual contact compared to those had never sex before (OR=11.7). Discussion: In this study, the prevalence of hepatitis C infection was 0.21% that it was lower than other studies in other countries. This might be due to a lower prevalence of HCV infection in our general population, a lower prevalence of HCV in the blood donors or due to a better donor selection. In addition, the main risk factor of hepatitis C in the study was IV drug abuse, which is similar to other studies