The prevalence of HIV–2 seropositivity in blood donors
3091-3094
Correspondence
Dr Suresh B SonthMD,
Assistant professor,
Department of Microbiology,
S. Nijalingappa Medical college,
Navanagar, Bagalkot – 587102
Karnataka, India.
Ph: 09448569200
E–mail: sureshsonth@rediffmail.com
Blood transfusion has been the transmission mechanism in 15% of all the HIV infections. The HIV pandemic brought into focus the importance of a safe blood donor pool. In India, the HIV-2 epidemic occurs along with HIV-1. The analysis of HIV-2 screening was carried out in a tertiary care hospital among all the blood donors (2005-2009). Among 43130 blood donors, 350 (0.81%) were positive for HIV infection from which 304 (0.704%) were positive for HIV-1 and 46 (0.106%) were positive for the HIV-2 infection. We are showing here, the infection rate of HIV-2 among blood donors and the importance of promoting voluntary blood donations to ensure that the donors are free from transfusion transmissible infections like HBV, HCV, HIV-1 and 2 and Syphilis.