PREVALENCE OF HBsAg AND ANTI-HCV ANTIBODIES IN POLY - TRANSFUSED β-THALASSAEMIA MAJOR CHILDREN IN LAHORE.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of HBsAg and Anti-HCV antibodies in polytransfused thalassaemic children at two different Thalassaemia Centres i.e. The Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion Service (IHBTS) Punjab, Lahore and The Thalassaemia Centre at Sir Gangaram Hospital, Lahore. To compare the prevalence of these markers between two centres. To determine association of sero-positivity with number of transfusions. Material and Methods: It is a cross sectional study. All information was gathered by questionnaire. Blood samples of 150 thalassaemic patients were collected from two different thalassaemia centres and sera were screened for HBsAg and Anti-HCV antibodies by ELISA technique. SPSS version 16 was used to analyze the data. Chi-square was applied to determine the association between number of transfusions and sero-positivity. Results: The prevalence of HBsAg and Anti-HCV antibodies was 0% and 68% respectively among the patients of IHBTS. 1% and 43% patients were positive for HBsAg and Anti-HCV antibodies respectively at Thalassaemia Centre at Sir Gangaram Hospital. The overall prevalence of HBsAg and Anti-HCV antibodies was 0.66% and 51.3% respectively. Prevalence of anti-HCV was more at IHBTS. An association was observed in increasing number of transfusions and increasing positivity of patients for Anti-HCV (p-value = 0.018). Conclusion: There is a need to focus on our health safety managements. A higher prevalence of Anti-HCV was observed due to weak infrastructure of health care centres or blood banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]