Hepatitis-C Infection: Are we really committed to eliminate? Could it become the second Polio for Pakistan?

Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Hepatitis B Virus, and Hepatitis C Virus in Blood Donors at a Tertiary Care Hospital Blood Bank

Objective The objective was to assess the efficacy of nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) in conjunction with serology for detecting hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in donor blood products. Methodology This retrospective cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the use of NAAT and viral serology in screening donor blood products for HBV, HCV, and HIV. The study was conducted at the Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan Khan Institute of Blood Diseases at Dow University of Health Sciences in Karachi, Pakistan, from April 2018 to May 2022. All blood products, after preparation, were screened for HBV, HCV, and HIV types I and II using electrochemiluminescence immunoassay on the Roche cobas e 601 analyzer (Roche, Basel, Switzerland). For further confirmation, blood products with negative viral serology underwent NAAT using the cobas TaqScreen MPX test version 2.0 (Roche) on the cobas s 201 system (Roche) to detect the window period of replicating viruses. Simple calculations were performed to determine the NAAT yield and yield rate for each virus, as well as the total number of viruses in seronegative donors. Results A total of 46,455 donors visited the Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan Khan Institute of Blood Diseases for blood donation. Of these, 6.97% (n = 3,240) tested positive for HIV, HBV, or HCV during serology screening, making them ineligible for donation. The remaining 93.02% (n = 43,215) of seronegative donors underwent NAAT to detect infections during the window period. NAAT revealed a reactivity of 0.044% (n = 19) for HBV, 0.009% (n = 4) for HCV, and 0.00% (n = 0) for HIV. The total NAAT yield rate for HBV was 1 in 2,252, and for HCV, it was 1 in 11,111. The overall NAAT yield rate for all viruses was 1 in 1,886 (0.053%) donor blood products. Conclusions These findings highlight the effectiveness of NAAT in identifying blood-borne infections during the window period. Consequently, routine NAAT screening for all seronegative blood donors is a crucial step that can reduce the burden of transfusion-transmitted infections and enhance the safety of blood products, especially in underdeveloped countries like Pakistan.

The Epidemic of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Under the Influence of COVID-19 in China

Background: Prevention and control of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are major public health priorities in China, but are influenced by the COVID-19 epidemic. In this study, we aimed to quantitatively explore the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and its control measures on five major STD epidemics in China.

Methods: A monthly number of newly reported cases of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, gonorrhea, and syphilis from January 2010 to December 2020 were extracted to establish autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. Each month's absolute percentage error (APE) between the actual value and model-predicted value of each STD in 2020 was calculated to evaluate the influence of the COVID-19 epidemic on the STDs. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to explore the confirmed COVID-19 case numbers and the COVID-19 control measures' correlations with the case numbers and the APEs of five STDs in 2020.

Results: The actual number of five STDs in China was more than 50% lower than the predicted number in the early days of the COVID-19 epidemic, especially in February. Among them, the actual number of cases of hepatitis C, gonorrhea, and syphilis in February 2020 was more than 100% lower than the predicted number (APE was −102.3, −109.0, and −100.4%, respectively). After the sharply declines of STDs' reported cases in early 2020, the case numbers recovered quickly after March. The epidemic of STDs was negatively associated with the COVID-19 epidemic and its control measures, especially for restrictions on gathering size, close public transport, and stay-at-home requirements (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: COVID-19 had a significant but temporary influence on the STD epidemic in China. The effective control of COVID-19 is vital for STD prevention. STD services need to be improved to prevent STDs from becoming a secluded corner in the shadow of COVID-19.