decline of hepatitis b virus in iranian blood donors in the last decade (2001-2010)

Background and aims: this study was the trends of hepatitis b infection among iranian blood donors which was analyzed in a period of 10 years. materials and methods: in a period of 10 years, from 2001 through 2010, a total of 16,264,830 donations from 30 regional and 35 local blood services were screened. all blood samples were tested for hepatitis b surface antigen (hbs ag) by commercial available kits. sistan-baluchestan (s&b) province representing a high prevalence and fars province was a low prevalence area. for assessing frequency of infection, the prevalence of hbs ag per 100 000 donations and 95% confidential intervals (95% cis) was calculated. statistical analysis was conducted using chi-square test and considered significant if p value was <0.05. results: the prevalence rates of hbs ag dramatically declined from 1.23% in 2001 to 0.25% in 2010 in iran. in s&b province hbs ag prevalence decreased from 3.29% in 2001 to 0.66% in 2010 and in fars province, the rate of hbs ag decreased from 0.82% in 2001 to 0.12% in 2010. in this period, the number of donation progressively increased from 1361321 donation in 2001 to 1889851 donation in 2010, p v <0.00001. the number of volunteer donations increased from 92% in 2001 to 100% in 2010. conclusion: the findings indicated that an appropriate implementation of iranian blood transfusion organization (ibto) programs such as the selection of blood donors/ donor recruitment, increasing non-remunerated repeat donors, routine screening for blood borne viruses, replacement donation exclusion, and implementation of automation are being performed.