Saeed Anwar, Mujtaba Siddiqi, Salma Haq, Ghias Khokhar, Ghazala Jaffery.
Association of blood group types to hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus infection.
Biomedica Jan ;27(1):57-61.

Introduction: Frequency of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg) and Hepatitis C Virus Antibodies (Anti-HCV) among blood donors of Lahore and their association with blood group types Objective: To study the frequency of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg) and Hepatitis C Virus Antibodies (Anti-HCV) in blood donors of Lahore and to assess the association with blood group types. The design of study will be cross sectional descriptive study. It was held in the Pathology Department, Nawaz Sharif Social Security Hospital, Lahore, during the period January, 2006 to December, 2008. Materials and Methods: A total of 16695 blood donors were screened for HBsAg and Anti-HCV by rapid test devices based on immuno-chromatographic technique following the instruction given by the manufacturer. In the present study, devices manufactured by Acon, USA were used. The specimens reactive on screening by devices were confirmed on ELISA. The results were subjected to chisquare analysis for determination of statistical difference between the values among different categories. Results: Among 16695 blood donors, 467 (2.79%) were positive for HBsAg and 1326 (7.94%) were positive for Anti-HCV. The frequency of HBsAg was seen to decrease significantly (p < 0.01) from 2006 to 2008 (4.23% to 2.31%). However, frequency of anti-HCV was seen to rise significantly (< 0.01) from 2006 (6.69%) to 2008 (7.82%). Comparison of HBsAg and anti-HCV positivity among RhD positive and RhD negative donors showed that there was no significant difference for HBsAg positivity (2.79% vs 2.85%). However, significantly higher number of RhD positive donors had HCV infection as compared to RhD negative donors (8.25% vs 3.66%). Conclusion: High frequency of HCV infection in blood donors needs implementation of strict screening policy for donors and public awareness campaigns about preventive measures to reduce the spread of this infection as well as other transfusion transmissible infections. Association of HCV infection with blood group types needs more studies to get more knowledge about this aspect.

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