Infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and syphilis are serious complications of blood transfusion. These infections are routinely screened by blood banks; such tests are obligatory for transfusion safety in Turkey. The results of screening 1 737 943 blood donations from blood centres in Istanbul between 1 January 1987 and 31 December 2003 for HBV, HCV, HIV and syphilis were analysed retrospectively. Hepatitis B surface antigen rates fell from 5.98% in 1987 to 2.07% in 2003. Anti-HCV seropositivity was found to be approximately 0.5%, whereas anti-HIV seropositivity was approximately 0.001%. Rapid plasma reagin rates (test for syphilis) were 0.04% in 1987, and increased to 0.2% in 2002. The decreasing trends observed in data from the 17-year period studied indicate the value of safety measures taken, in particular the implementation of donor screening procedures in 1997.

This observational study attempted to identify the effect of a natural disaster on the safety of blood supply and donor types with the influx of donors after a severe earthquake. Blood donation rate, blood discard rate and safety of blood donations responding to the earthquake, as projected from the infectious disease marker rate, were evaluated in blood donated immediately before (1 July-17 August) and after 17 August 1999 (17 August-21 August). These were compared with the results from the corresponding periods in 1998 and 2000 for donations at a university medical centre and two regional blood centres. 8055 units of allogeneic blood were collected at two regional blood centres, and 450 units were collected at a university medical centre during 4 days. Viral marker rates were nearly the same at the former but were slightly lower at the latter. The blood discard rate was nearly twice the comparative periods at the former, but it remained unchanged at the latter. Voluntary donors replaced the replacement donors during 4 days. This analysis highlights the size of the pool of potential donors that are available as a national resource that can be motivated to give blood with the right motivation.

The national blood transfusion policies have been changed significantly in recent years in Turkey. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of HBV, HCV, and HIV in blood donors at the Red Crescent Center in Istanbul and to evaluate the effect of changes in the national blood transfusion policies on the prevalence of these infections. The screening results of 72695 blood donations at the Red Crescent Center in Istanbul between January and December 2007 were evaluated retrospectively. HBsAg, anti-HCV, and anti-HIV-1/2 were screened by microparticle enzyme immunoassay (MEIA) method. Samples found to be positive for anti-HIV 1/2 and anti-HCV were confirmed by Inno-Lia HCV Ab III and Inno-Lia HIV I/II Score, respectively. The seropositivity rates for HBsAg, anti-HCV, and anti-HIV-1/2 were determined as 1.76%, 0.07%, and 0.008%, respectively. Compared to the previously published data from Red Crescent Centers in Turkey, it was found that HBV and HCV seroprevalances decreased and HIV seroprevalance increased in recent years. In conclusion, we believe that the drop in HBV and HCV prevalence rates are likely multifactorial and may have resulted from more diligent donor questioning upon screening, a higher level of public awareness on viral hepatitis as well as the expansion of HBV vaccination coverage in Turkey. Another factor to contribute to the decreased prevalence of HCV stems from the use of more sensitive confirmation testing on all reactive results, thereby eliminating a fair amount of false positive cases. Despite similar transmission routes, the increase in HIV prevalence in contrast to HBV and HCV may be linked to the increase in AIDS cases in Turkey in recent years

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the intra-assay correlations amongst initial reactive and repeat screening results used in enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) for hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV in blood donors. This study evaluated the value of using the power of the signal to cut-off (S/CO) ratio index for confirming anti-HCV/HIV reactive screening results, thereby touching upon the utility of S/CO indices in determining whether further confirmatory testing was necessary. Screening test results of the 72,695 blood donors were evaluated over a 1-year period. Correlation analysis among each initial test and retests was done by Pearson r test. Appropriate S/CO values to determine the need of the confirmation testing was investigated by ROC analyses. EIA intra-assay correlations were of statistical significance and were determined as follows: 0.948 for anti-HCV, 0.827 for anti-HIV and 0.948 for HBsAg. The threshold S/CO ratio values which predicted more than 95% of the confirmation test result were 3.8 for HCV and 5.6 for HIV. We were able to demonstrate a strong level of intra-assay correlation amongst EIAs, thereby eliminating the need for repetition of the screening test. Hence, we suggest that repeat screening should only be limited to HBV and HIV tests with low EIA S/CO ratios. Thus, using the power of the S/CO ratio in determining the need for HCV confirmation testing can be a cost-effective measure, especially if the S/CO value is >or=3.8.