Seroprevalence of HIV/HBV coinfection in Malian blood donors.

OBJECTIVES

A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and their coinfection among blood donors at the National Blood Transfusion Center in Bamako, Mali, from November 2001 to July 2002.

METHODS

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay techniques with reagents from Bio-Rad (France) were used to test the blood samples.

RESULTS

11,592 blood donors were tested for HIV and HBV surface antigens. The prevalence of HIV was 4.5% and the prevalence of HBV was 14.9%. The HIV/HBV coinfection rate was only 1.13% in this population.

CONCLUSION

The coinfection rate was unexpectedly low in this blood donor population where monoinfection with HIV or HBV prevalence was high.