Objective: To study infectious disease markers of hepatitis B & C and HIV in the voluntary blood donors and replacement blood donors at the Blood Bank Unit, Songklanagarind Hospital, Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand.
Material and Methods: Using donation data collected at the Blood Bank unit, Songklanagarind Hospital from January, 2001 to December, 2003, the ratio of hepatitis (HBsAg, anti-HCV), HIV (HIV-Ag, anti-HIV) and Rapid Plasma Reagin (RPR) was evaluated.
Results: The overall ratio of infectious disease markers in 40,826 Blood Bank donors (32,081 voluntary donors and 8,745 replacement donors) was 2.36%. There were no significant differences by age (P = 0.436). However, the ratio rate revealed a significant difference in gender with 2.75% in males and 1.58% in females (P < 0.001). The rate in the 32,081 voluntary blood donors was 1.68% and in the 8,745 replacement blood donors was 4.85% (P < 0.001).
Conclusion: The voluntary blood donors carried significantly less blood-borne diseases than the replacement blood donors and the females were also less likely to carry such diseases than males. This information of infectious rates may be useful in allocating resources to meet the Blood Bank collection goal.