Prevalence and Risk Factors of Hepatitis B among Blood Donors in Al-Najaf Governorate

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global problem. When the virus replicates in the hepatocytes, the liver functions will be impairedand the infection will spread throughout the liver. Blood and blood products contain HBV, and therefore the virus could be transmitted via blood transfusion. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of viral hepatitis B (HBsAg and anti-HBc antibody) among the blood donors of the main blood bank in AL-Najaf governorate (central Iraq). We also analyzed some factors which may be associated with HBV infection. To do this, a total of 16273 blood samples were collected from voluntary donors from (20/5/2016) to (12/12/2016). The presence of HBV was tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for HBsAg and anti-HBc antibody. The samples were also analyzed in part for age range, gender, profession, liver enzymes and blood characterization. Our results showed that 41 individuals were chronically infected with HBV, one of them was female. Most of the infected patients were aged between 28-37 years old (47.6%). It is showed that HBV infected people have significantly higher levels of Serum Glutamic-Oxaloacetic Transaminase (SGOT) and Serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT) compared with the control (P < 0.001 and P <0.011 respectively). The increased levels were also observed for lymphocytes and platelets (P<0.055 and P<0.429 respectively). The results also showed that the virus is more distributed between drivers (33.3%).