September 1994, Volume 44, Issue 9
Letter to the Editor
Sir, Hepatitis B infection is a major blood transmittable infection in the country’. To know the prevalence of hepatitis B infection in professional and family/voluntary blood donors, we screened 103 professional blood donors and 2,573 family/voluntary blood donors for RBsAg with Auszyme kit (Abbott Laboratories). Ten professional blood donors and 134 family/voluntary blood donors were HBsAg positive. A 10% prevalence of hepatitis B infection in professional blood donors and 5% in family/voluntary donors is alarming and stresses the need for elimination of paid donors from blood donation, mandatory screening of every unit of blood and appropriate use of blood and its product2,3.
Syed Abdul Mujeeb, Wajahat Hussain and Azfarul Haq
Blood Transfusion Services, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi.
References
1. Zubcri, S.J. and Lodi, T.Z. Hepatitis B antigen in blood donors in Karachi. J.Pak.Med.Assoc., 1974;24: 126.
2. World Health Organiastion. Consensus statement on screening of blood donations for infectious agents transmissible through blood transfusion. Global Blood Safety Initiative, Geneva, WHO., 1990, pp. 1-7.
3. Mujeeb, S.A. Blood transfusion services a potential source of HIV/AIDS spread (editorial). J.Pak.Med.Assoc., 1993;43:1.
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