Prevalence of Chronic Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C among First Time Blood Donors in Northeast Bosnia and Herzegovina: An Estimate of Prevalence in General Population

Background: data on the epidemiology of hepatitis b and c in bosnia and herzegovina (b&h) are lacking.objectives: to assess the prevalence of hepatitis b surface antigen (hbsag) and anti-hepatitis c virus (anti-hcv) in blood samples of first time blood donors in a well-defined region of b&h. our secondary goal was to estimate the prevalence of hbsag and anti-hcv in the general population of the same region.patients and methods: we evaluated 8196 blood samples for the presence of hbsag and/or anti-hcv, adjusted for differences in gender, and used the ratio estimation method to determine the prevalence in the general population.results: we analyzed 1263 (15.4%) female and 6933 (84.6%) male blood donors (male-to-female ratio: 5.49 to 1). the adjusted prevalence of hbsag among blood donors was 0.787% (95% ci = 0.535-1.038), while the prevalence of anti-hcv was 0.267% (95% ci = 0.016-0.519). there was no difference in the prevalence of hbsag or anti-hcv between men and women. we estimate that the prevalence of hbsag and anti-hcv in the general population is 1.057% to 1.535% and 0.29% to 0.89%, respectively.conclusions: the prevalence of hbsag and anti-hcv among blood donors suggests that our region has low endemicity for both hepatitis b and hepatitis c.