Profile of blood donors in relation to hepatitis C

Hepatitis C has historically been treated as a public health problem, which is included in clinical and laboratory research for blood donation in this regard. This research used the database of the Blood Bank of Santa Casa de Misericórdia in Porto Alegre. A total of 69,404 blood donors were enrolled between April 2014 and July 2016. The parameters associated with hepatic C blood donor candidates, including clinical screening, HCV-related risk factors and the results of the laboratory tests, by electrochemiluminescence and NAT. From the survey conducted in the database, 39,372 (56.73%) candidates were of the masculine gender, while 30,032 (43.27%) of the female gender. For the HCV-related risk factors, 1,788 (22.0%) of the male gender and 1,292 (11.7%) of the female gender were considered unfit for donation. The prevalent risk factor for HCV was the risk behavior, 1,028 (72.85%) of the men and 364 (26.15%) of the women candidates. And among the laboratory analyzes for HCV, 50,146 results were nonreactive and concordant between serology and NAT. According to the electrochemiluminescence methodology, 84 anti-HCV results were reactive; of these 31 cases (37.0%) there was agreement between the methodologies, with NAT positive and in 63 cases there was disagreement with negative NAT (63.0%). The research on the profile of the donor candidate regarding HCV risk factors and laboratory, serological and molecular markers supports the understanding of the topic under a critical public health perspective and contributes greatly to the strategies in blood donation and precocious diagnosis of HCV. Keywords: Blood Donors; Hepatitis C; Clinical-Laboratory Screening