High prevalence and poor linkage to care of transfusion transmitted infections among blood donors in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
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.
Date Issued
2019-06-01
Date Acceptance
2019-02-02
Citation
Journal of Viral Hepatitis, 2019, 26 (6), pp.750-756
ISSN
1352-0504
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
750
End Page
756
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Viral Hepatitis
Volume
26
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Authors. Journal of Viral Hepatitis Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Sponsor
Wellcome Trust
Wellcome Trust
Grant Number
105603/Z/14/Z
097816/Z/11/ZR
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Infectious Diseases
Virology
blood donation
linkage to care
sub-Saharan Africa
transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs)
B-VIRUS INFECTION
SAFETY
AFRICA
GAMBIA
TESTS
blood donation
linkage to care
sub-Saharan Africa
transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs)
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
1103 Clinical Sciences
1108 Medical Microbiology
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2019-02-03