Blood donor recruitment strategies and their impact on blood safety in Egypt

IntroductionBecause of the high incidence of HCV, blood safety presents a serious challenge in Egypt.Given the constrained economy which limits the implementation of nucleic acid amplification technology, proper recruitment of blood donors becomes of paramount importance. To evaluate the effectiveness of blood donor recruitment strategies, the seroprevalence of positive infectious markers among blood donors was studied.Materials and methodsDonors’ records covering the period from 2006–2012 were reviewed. Blood donations were screened for HCV antibodies, HBs antigen (HBsAg), HIV-1 and 2 and syphilis antibodies.ResultsOf 308,762 donors, 63.4% were voluntary donors (VD). VD of 2011–2012 were significantly younger than family replacement donors (RD) .The overall prevalences of HCV antibodies, HBsAg, HIV and syphilis antibodies were 4.3%, 1.22%, 0.07%, and 0.13%, respectively. All tested markers (except HIV) were significantly higher among RD, when compared to VD (P < 0.0001). A consistent steady trend for decrease in HCV seropositivity was observed in RD and VD from 8.9% and 4.2% to 3.8% and 1.5%, respectively. A trend for decrease in HBsAg was demonstrated in VD from 1.2% to 0.53%.ConclusionThe decreasing trends in HCV antibody and HBs antigen is promising and may reflect the improved donor selection criteria.