Prevalence of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Infections and their Co-infection among Blood Donors in Minia Governorate, Egypt

Aim: Infections with Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) cause serious morbidity and mortality. This study was designed to determine the prevalence of Hepatitis B and C infections and their co-infections among blood donors in Minia governorate, Egypt.
Study Design: A cross-sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted over a period of 6 months starting from May 2011 till December 2011 and it included 5410 samples from blood donors at the Regional Blood Transfusion Center in Minia governorate.
Methodology: Both HBsAg and antibodies to HCV were detected by EIA in 5410 blood samples from potentially healthy asymptomatic blood donors. Detection of HBV DNA and HCV RNA was carried out by real-time PCR (RT-PCR).
Results: Most individuals were males (4305; 79.6%) and were from rural areas (3695; 68.3%). The sero-prevalence of infections was 0.9% (48 cases) for HBV and 6% (322 cases) for HCV, and 0.1% (7 cases) for co-infection. Out of 7 samples with co-infection, only one (14.3%) was positive for HBV DNA and HCV RNA. The mean age of HCV-antibody positive donors (33.2 ±9.41 years) was significantly higher than that of the HBV-positive donors (27.3± 6.06 years) and co-infection (29.9± 10.21 years) (P<0.05). Prevalence of HBV and HCV was higher in males (1% and 6.6% respectively) while HCV was higher in rural areas (6.8%) unlike HBV which did not show any difference in residential distribution (0.9% for both rural and urban areas).
Conclusion: The prevalence of both viruses is low and that of the dual infection is lower than any of the two viruses alone.