Trends in Seroprevalence of Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV, and Syphilis Infections in Iranian Blood Donors from 2003 to 2005

Background and aims: to determine changes (trends) in infection rates of hepatitis b surface antigen (hbsag), hepatitisc virus (hcv), human immunodeficiency virus (hiv), and syphilis in iranian blood donor population.methods: specimens of 1,004,889 volunteer blood donors in tehran blood transfusion service from 2003 to 2005 werescreened for hbsag, anti-hcv, anti-hiv1/2, and vdrl (venereal disease research laboratory) reactivity in a crosssectionalsurvey. reactive samples were verified using a recognized confirmatory test which consisted of a secondindependent hbsag enzyme immunoassay (eia), and neutralization assay; an additional independent anti-hcv eia andhcv-riba assay; a second independent anti-hiv1/2 test, and hiv western blot; and a confirmatory fluorescenttreponemal antibody absorbed (fta-abs) test, respectively.results: the seroprevalence of hbsag, anti-hcv, hiv abl/2, and vdrl was 0.9%, 2.1%, 0.2%, and 0.04%,respectively, in all blood donors. prevalence of confirmed positivity was 0.6%, for hbsag, 0.1%, for hcv rna, 0.004%,for hiv western blot and 0.004% for fta-abs. between 2003 to 2005, a decreasing trend was observed in hbsagf requency. hcv frequency decreased in 2005 compared to 2003. the trend of hiv infection frequency had no increasingor decreasing pattern, and was relatively stable while t he trend of syphilis infection frequency increased.conclusions: although the frequency of transfusion-transmitted infections is low, it is still far from ideal in the volunteerblood donors. reduction of trends of infections could be achieved through more scrutiny in donor selection, improvedsensitivity of serological tests, and re-evaluation of infection routes in donors.