Human immunodeficiency virus infection in voluntary blood donors in North-Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

The Human immunodeficiency virus infection is known to occur in the general population, and due to their mode of transmission through blood and blood products, it has made the provision of safe blood increasingly difficult, and the screening of blood absolutely necessary. The objective was to determine the sero-prevalence of Human immunodeficiency virus infection among voluntary blood donors. It was a hospital-based cross sectional study. Place of study was the Blood bank of Federal Medical Centre, Yola, Nigeria from January, 2007 to December, 2008. Five hundred and ninety five consecutively recruited voluntary blood donors were screened for Human immunodeficiency virus infection. The HIV serology was determined by enzyme-linked immune-sorbent assay (GENSCREEN plus HIV Ag Ab BIO RAD, France) and confirmed by Immunocomb assay II (HIV 1 and HIV 2 CombFirm test Orgenics Israel).The biodata of the patients were obtained. Written informed consent was obtained from each patient. A total of 595 donors were screened. 571 donors (96%) were males while 24 (4%) were females. The mean age was 31.3+/-7.9 years. Only the male donors had HIV infection. Only 4 donors (0.7%) were positive for HIV infection. The conclusion is that the sero-prevalence of HIV infection is low among voluntary blood donors in North-eastern Nigeria.