Prevalence of hepatitis C virus antibodies among blood donors in north-eastern Poland.

In many countries, screening blood donors for viral markers is an important source of information about epidemiology of HCV infection. The aim of this study was to determine seroprevalence of HCV infection among blood donors in north-eastern Poland and to compare it with prevalence of markers of other infections. We retrospectively analysed the results of tests for anti-HCV, HBsAg and anti-HIV of all blood donations performed in years 1998-2003. For HCV infection, full data (including all results of confirmatory tests) were available only for years 1998-2000. Overall prevalence of anti-HCV among all donors in years 1998-2000 was 0.5%. There was no significant difference in anti-HCV positivity rate of male and female donors. Majority of HCV infections occurred among first time donors (152/202; 75% of all HCV-positive results). The prevalence of anti-HCV among first time donors averaged 0.6% and remained at similar level as HBsAg (0.7%). The number of anti-HIV positives among first time donors remained low (mean prevalence 0.01%). We conclude that prevalence of anti-HCV among blood donors in podlaskie woiewodship is similar to prevalence in Poland but higher than reported for Western European countries and USA.