Seroprevalence of syphilis among blood donors in Ilorin

Authors

  • H. O. Olawumi
  • B. A. Issa
  • A. Fadeyi
  • I. A. Durotoye
  • O. A. Shittu
  • A. D. Yussuf
  • P. O. Ajiboye
  • O. A. Adegunloye
  • A. K. Salami
  • C. Nwabuisi
  • D. Sulyman

Keywords:

syphilis, blood donors, risky lifestyle

Abstract

Background: One of the greatest values of serological test for syphilis is as a surrogate marker for lifestyle known to be associated with high risk of HIV and HCV infections. This study was designed to determine the prevalence of syphilis among blood donors in Ilorin and also the relationship between seropositivity and lifestyle known to be associated with high risk for HIV and Hepatitis infection.

Method: This was a hospital based cross sectional study involving 350 consenting blood donors. The socio-demographic details (e.g., age, sex, occupation, risk behavior etc) were obtained using a structured questionnaire designed for the study. Screening for syphilis was carried out using the DiaSpot Rapid Diagnostic Test kit (DS 401- Syphilis test strips; lot: SYP2070028) according to the manufacturer's (Sam Tech Diagnostics) instructions.

Result: The seroprevalence of syphilis among the blood donors was 1.1%. None of the seropositive donors was a homosexual, commercial sex worker or intravenous drug user. None of them had history of blood transfusion. Only one out of the 4 seropositive donors engaged in extramarital sex.

Conclusion: The seroprevalence of syphilis among blood donors in Ilorin was low and therefore the relationship between syphilis seropositivity and high risk lifestyle could not be determined. A prospective study design where cases and controls are appropriately matched to exclude confounders would be more appropriate. The relationship of syphilis seropositivity and high risk lifestyle can therefore be better studied among patients attending Sexually Transmitted Infection clinic and using seronegative patients as controls.

References

World Health Organization. Screening Donated Blood for

Transfusion Transmissible Infections-Recommendations. WHO. Geneva. 2009: 30.

Bihl F, Castelli D, Marincola F, Dodd RY, Brander C. Transfusiontransmitted infections. Journal of Transfusional Medicine. 2007;5: 25.

Singh AE, Romanowski B. Syphilis: review with emphasis on clinical, epidemiologic, and some biologic features. Clin. Microbiol. Rev.1999; 12:187–209.

Contreras M, Hewitt PA. Clinical blood transfusion. In Hoffbrand AV, Lewis SM, Tuddenham EG. (Ed) Postgraduate Haematology. 4th Edition. New York Oxford University Press. 1999(pp 215-234)

Adjei AA, Kudzi W, Armah H, Adiku T, Amoah AG, Ansah J. Prevalence of antibodies to syphilis among blood donors in Accra, Ghana. Jpn J Infect. Dis. 2003;56 :165-167

Shrestha AC, Ghimre P,Tiwari BR, Rajkarnikar M. Transfusiontransmissible infections among blood donors in Kathmandu, Nepal. J Infect Dev Ctries 2009; 3(10):794797.

Tessema B,Yismaw G, Kassu A, Amsalu A, Mulu A Emmrich F et al. Seroprevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV and syphilis infections among blood donors at Gondar University Teaching Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia: declining trends over a period of five years. BMC Infectious Diseases 2010;10:111

Manzoor I, Hashmi N, Daud S, Ajmal S, Fatima H, Rashhed Z. Seroprevalence of transfusion transmissible infections in blood donors. Biomedica 2009;25:154-158

Bhawani Y,Rao PR, Sudhakar V. Seroprevalence of transfusion transmissible infections among blood donors in a tertiary care hospital of

Andhra Pradesh. Biology of Medicine. 2010;2(4):45-48

Olokooba AB, Olookoba LB, Danburam A, Badung LH, Tidi SK, Midala J. Syphilis in voluntary blood donors in North Eastern Nigeria. E u r o p e a n J s c i Research.2009;31(3):335-340

Adegoke AO, Akanni O, Dirisu J.Risk of transfusion-transmitted syphilis in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. N Am J Med Sci. 2011; 3(2):78-81.

Olawumi HO, Adewuyi JO. Blood donation trend in a tertiary hospital in

Nigeria. Savannah Journal of Medical Research and Practice 2012;1(1): 25-28

Gardella G, Martin AA, Kahn RH, Swint E, Markowitz E. Persons with early syphilis identified through blood or plasma donation screening in the United States. J Infect. Dis. 2002; 185: 545-549.

Rolfs RT, Goldberg M, Sharrar RG. Risk factors for syphilis: Cocaine use and prostitution. Paediatrics. 1994; 93: 254-260

World Medical Association. Declaration of Helsinki. 2008 r e v i s i o n a v a i l a b l e f r o m : http://www.wma.net/e/ethicsunit/hel sinki.htm Accessed 3rd August, 2012

Downloads

Published

2023-09-16

How to Cite

Olawumi, H. O., Issa, B. A., Fadeyi, A., Durotoye, I. A., Shittu, O. A., Yussuf, A. D., Ajiboye, P. O., Adegunloye, O. A., Salami, A. K., Nwabuisi, C., & Sulyman, D. (2023). Seroprevalence of syphilis among blood donors in Ilorin. Research Journal of Health Sciences, 2(3), 133–141. Retrieved from https://rjhs.org/index.php/home/article/view/69

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 3 (2014): Research Journal of Health Sciences

Section

Original Article

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Research Journal of Health Sciences

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Research Journal of Health Sciences journal is a peer reviewed, Open Access journal. The Journal subscribed to terms and conditions of Open Access publication. Articles are distributed under the terms of Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). (http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc-nd/4.0). All articles are made freely accessible for everyone to read, download, copy and distribute as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

Most read articles by the same author(s)