Prevalence of Transfusion Transmitted Infections in Multiple Blood Transfused β-Thalassemia Patients from a Tertiary Care Centre in North India

Abstract

Introduction: The mainstay of therapy for patients suffering from beta thalassemia major is regular blood transfusion and chelation therapy due to constraints in bone marrow transplantation. The present study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs) in multitransfused patients of thalassemia major and to determine the association with relation to the number of blood transfusions received. Material and Methods: This study was conducted in Department of Microbiology on 126 β-thalassemia major patients registered for regular blood transfusions at Thalassemia Day Care Centre attached to Department of Pediatrics, Government Medical College, Amritsar, Punjab from January to July 2018. The patient's serum samples were screened for TTIs i.e. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV). Seropositivity screening for HBV and HCV was done by rapid Immunochromatographic test and confirmed by enzymelinked immunosorbent assays. (ELISA) while for HIV as per NACO guidelines. Results: Out of 126 patients, 14.28% (18/126) were seroreactive for TTIs. Of these sero-reactive patients, 13.4% (17/126) were positive for anti-HCV antibody, 0.79% (1/126) positive for HBsAg and none (0) for anti HIV antibody. Of the anti-HCV reactive cases, 70.5% (12 out of 17) were >12years of age, 58.8% (10 out of 17) had received more than 250 transfusions, and 23.5% (4 out of 17) had received transfusions between 100 to 250. Anti-HCV seroreactivity was thus found to increase with the age and increase in the number of transfusions received. Conclusion: It is concluded that HCV is the most prevalent TTI in multi-transfused children with thalassemia major and stringent pre-transfusion screening of blood for anti-HCV must be introduced in blood centers. HBV vaccination should also be done before the start of transfusion regimen or as soon as possible after diagnosis of thalassemia.

Occurrence of Transfusion Transmitted Infections Among Transfusion Dependent Thalassemia Patients in A Tertiary Care Hospital in India

“…Our study showed highest occurrence of HCV infection 4/102 (3.90%). The highest prevalence of HCV was also seen in studies like Gugnani et al 14 of 13.4%, Sidhu et al 15 of 13.04%, Manisha et al 16 of 18.2%. Post-transfusion transmission of HCV has still remained a major health concern in multi-transfused patients.…”

Prevalence of HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections among patients with thalassemia attending a tertiary care (rural) hospital

“…When compared to statistics available through peer-reviewed studies from India,[ 15 16 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 ] incidence of HIV-1, HBV and HCV in our thalassemia cohort was on the higher side [ Table 7 ]. Most recent reports from our country document the high prevalence of these TTIs due to the use of molecular tests in addition to serological tests like in our study [ Table 7 ].…”