Background:Hepatitis B infection has long been known to be common in the general population and due to its mode of transmission through blood transfusion; it had made provision of safe blood difficult especially in developing countries. Method: A retrospective study aimed at reassessing the current of sero-prevalence of hepatitis B infection in blood donors in a typical developing country was conducted. Results: Six thousand and twenty five regular blood were screened our of which 254 (4.2%) were HBsAg positive with lowest rates being in 2001 (3.5%) and the highest rates occurred in 2002(5.1%).Age of donors ranged from 19-42years with a mean 33 years, 98% were males while only 2% were females. Prevalence of HBsAg was 47.2% in patients' replacement donors, 44.5% in relations of antenatal clinic attendees and 8.3% in voluntary donors.
Conclusions:This study has revealed a high prevalence rate of hepatitis B infections in all age groups and categories of blood donors in our setting which makes transfusion of unscreened hazardous.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.