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India’s Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital Individual
Donor-Nucleic Acid Testing (ID-NAT) blood bank reported that, on average, 12 of
every 1,000 blood donors had hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and two of every
1,000 had HIV. Bowering Hospital’s blood bank, which tested samples from 34
government-run blood banks, was the only Indian facility that used ID-NAT to
identify HBV in donated blood.
The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) assisted with
66 of the 178 blood banks in India. The government ran 34 NACO-assisted blood
banks, and nongovernmental organizations ran the remaining NACO-assisted blood
banks.
S. Manjunath, Bowering Hospital blood bank’s technical
director, stated that the blood bank tested 12,000 samples in January and
diagnosed 54 HBV cases. In February, the ratio of samples tested to HBV
diagnoses was 8,500 to 58. In March, the ratio was 9,000 samples tested to 134
HBV cases. In April, the ratio was 8,000 samples tested to 95 HBV cases. In
May, the ratio was 8,500 samples tested to 91 HBV cases. In June, the ratio was
10,000 samples tested to 54 HBV cases. In July the ratio was 10,000 samples
tested to 87 HBV cases.
A national advisory group recommended strategies for the
government, policymakers, medical practitioners, pharmaceuticals, and other
stakeholders to control HBV. Strategies included compulsory implementation of
universal safety precautions in clinical practice settings, implementation of
policies to protect professionals in contact with blood and blood products,
mass voluntary blood donation to screen for hepatitis and build emergency blood
supplies, and awareness and counseling for HBV-affected persons.
HBV is transmitted by contact with blood or other body
fluids of an infected person. Common symptoms of acute HBV include jaundice,
diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and abdominal pain. Untreated HBV could
cause cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer.
