Viral seroprevalence, transfusion and alloimmunization in adults with sickle cell anemia in Guadeloupe]

We retrospectively studied the prevalence of anti HIV 1 and 2, anti-HTLV-I, anti-Hepatitis B and C viruses (HBV and HCV) antibodies, anti-HBV vaccinal coverage, transfused patients and alloimmunizations frequencies among adult sickle cell patients attending the sickle cell center (SCC) of Guadeloupe. The data were collected from the medical files of the centre. Among the studied samples (n = 331) no transfusional HIV contamination was observed. All patients with HTLV-I (n = 11, 3.3% of whole sample) and anti-HCV (n = 9, 2.7%) positive serology had transfusion history. Five patients (1.5%) had an active hepatitis B. Vaccination against HBV efficiently protected 247 patients (74.4%) and 57 had post-hepatitis B antibodies. We observed that 213 patients (64%) had a history of transfusion (88% of SS patients and 36% of the SC patients, p < 0.05). Fifty-four patients (16%) presented alloimmunization, 4 of them have never been transfused. These results show that it is still necessary to optimise transfusion protocol and their safety, and to diagnose viral contamination in transfused sickle cell patients.