Hepatitis B prevalence among blood donors at Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, Gambia

Abstract

Background: hepatitis B is a major public health problem in developing countries. In The Gambia, blood safety is one of the major concerns of the Ministry of Health and thus all blood donors are screened for hepatitis B. The study therefore assessed the prevalence of Hepatitis B amongst blood donors in Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital.   Methods: a cross sectional prospective study was conducted from March 2021 to May 2021 at the blood bank in Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital. A questionnaire was used to record Socio-demographic features, Type of blood donation and hepatitis B test results. Data analysis was done using STATA/SE 14.2  statistical package.   Results: the study recruited 429 blood donors, mostly male 427 (99.6%) with a median age of 31 years (17-57 years). Replacement blood donors were 363 (80.8%), mostly family blood donors 246 (67.8%) and majority first degree relatives 144 (58.5%). The overall prevalence of Hepatitis B in our study population was 45 (10.5%). Patients with positive Hepatitis B were older 34.6 vs. 31.5 years (p=0.009), more likely to be first time blood donor (p=<0.001), to be a farmer (p=0.033) and less likely to be part of the Hepatitis B vaccinated cohort (p=0.010) as compared to patients with negative hepatitis B.   Conclusion: hepatitis B positive blood donors were older, more likely to be first time donors and less likely to be part of the Hepatitis B vaccinated cohort. In The Gambia, young, regular and voluntary blood donors are more likely to be better choice blood donor.