[HIV, HCV, HBV and syphilis infections among blood donors in Germany 2006. Report from the Robert Koch Institute in accordance with Article 22 of the Transfusion Act].

The Robert Koch Institute collects and evaluates data on the prevalence and incidence of HIV, hepatitis C (HCV), hepatitis B (HBV) and syphilis infections among blood and plasma donors in Germany according to Article 22 of the Transfusion Act. The surveillance data permit an assessment of the occurrence of infections in the blood donor population and consequently the safety of the collected donations. This report includes data from all blood donation services in Germany for 2006. Due to the revision of the Transfusion Act in 2005 not only the number of donations but also the number of donors has become available for analysis. More than 500,000 donations or blood samples from new donors and about 6 million donations collected from ca. 2.3 million repeat donors were screened in 2006. The prevalence for HIV was 6.2/100,000, for HCV 76.2/100,000, for HBV 150.2/100,000 and for syphilis 34.4/100,000 donations. The rate of seroconversions/100,000 donations was 0.8 for HIV, 1.1 for HCV, 0.7 for HBV and 1.6 for syphilis. The analysis showed a very low incidence of HIV, HBV und syphilis with marginal changes compared to previous years. The prevalence and incidence of HCV among blood donors was once again declining.