Acute and chronic viral hepatitis are common public health problems in Pakistan, and associated with serious complications. The carrier rate of HBsAg is quoted to be around 10% in general population while the prevalence of HCV in blood donors is 4.8 %. Data regarding the prevalence of hepatitis B and C virus infections among healthy blood donors is well established in Karachi, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Lahore and Abbotabad areas, but similar data is not available for Multan population. Data regarding the epidemiology of HIV infection among blood donors is not available at most of the blood transfusion centers. In this study six thousands (6000) consecutive young healthy voluntary blood donors (age 16-50 years) comprising of 5476 males and 524 females, belonging to Multan region were included from "Blood Transfusion Center Nishtar Hospital Multan" & "Fatmid Blood Transfusion Center Multan" and were tested for HbsAg, Anti-HCV and HIV. Prevalence of Hepatitis B, C and HIV Infection was 3.37%, 0.27% and 0% respectively. The reported prevalence figures for HBsAg & Anti-HCV in other studies are quite variable, depending upon screening protocol, study groups selected and methodology of testing. If data from all the blood transfusion centers of Pakistan is collected and published, we can get representative prevalence values of HBV, HCV and HIV infection of the general population.

The discovery of various blood group systems has an immense importance in transfusion medicine and medico legal field. The association of certain blood groups with various diseases like peptic ulcer is well established. ABO and Rh blood groups are the main systems to cause blood transfusion reactions. An individual blood group today, is as important as national identity card. In cases of emergency blood transfusion, the blood group data of a population is very much important. The frequency of ABO and Rh blood groups vary throughout the world. It has been observed that group B diminishes in frequency from East to West. ABO and Rh blood group data is well established in Karachi and Lahore areas, but the data is not available from Multan region. In this study six thousands young healthy voluntary blood donors of either sex belonging to Multan region comprising of 5476 males and 524 females were included from "Blood Transfusion Center Nishtar Hospital Multan" and "Fatmid Blood Transfusion Center Multan". The commonest blood group observed in this study was "B" with frequency of 36.95%. The next common was group "0" with frequency of 33.8% followed by group "A" with frequency of 21.92% and group "AB" 7.33%. The frequency distribution of Rh blood group shows that 92.17% of the subjects are Rh-+ve & 7.83% are Rh--ve.