The incidence of HIV among blood donors in Kaduna, Nigeria.

A Hassan HM, Muktar, AI Mamman, AJ Ahmed, AH Isa, AA Babadoko
Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria,
hassanyola@yahoo.com

Transfusion transmissible infections are a very serious complication of blood transfusion.This is due to thelong term morbidity and mortality associated with infectious agents such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). HIV has continued to pose a great challenge to transfusion medicine, most especially in Africa due to a high transfusion demand.

Since the discovery that HIV is transmitted through blood transfusion it became necessary to test all intending blood donors for HIV infection before they are bled to ensure the safety of all blood and blood products to the recipients. Nigeria with a HIV seroprevalence of 5% by 2004 has the third largest population of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world. We carried out this study to determine the incidence of HIV infection among all intending blood donors over a period of five years from January 2000 to December 2004 at the Kaduna Unit of the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital