Performance des Tests Sérologiques au Cours du Dépistage de Quatre Infections Transmissibles par la Voie Sanguine chez les Donneurs Bénévoles de Sang à Yaoundé, Cameroun: Performance of Serological Tests during Screening for Four Blood-borne Infections in Voluntary Blood Donors in Yaoundé, Cameroon

Abstract

Introduction. The Jamot Hospital in Yaoundé (HJY) works with associations that promote voluntary blood donation. The study described the sensitivities and specificities of the rapid screening tests (RST) used to qualify blood bags compared with ELISA at HJY. Methodology. This was a cross-sectional study conducted from October 2017 to January 2019 in 7 Yaoundé churches. It included blood donation candidates who met the eligibility criteria. Statistical analysis was performed using Excel, Stata and R. The statistical significance threshold p was considered if less than or equal to 0.05. Results. 555 blood donation candidates were recruited. The mean age was 28.9 (min18, max 50) years. The sex ratio was 1.56. The sensitivities of Alere Determine HIV1/2 (Abbott, USA) HIV RDT, Labmen HBS antigen and HVC antibody to ELISA (Fortress, UK) and Labmen anti-syphilis RDT (Turkey) to TPHA were 46.2%(95% CI 23.21-70.86) ; 66.7% (95% CI 54.93-76.65); 58.8%(95% CI 0.36-78.39) and 19.5% (95% CI 10.23-34.01) respectively. The specificities of the HIV, HBS ag, HVC antibody and treponema pale RDTs were 98.2%(95% CI 97.61-99.49); 98.4% (95% CI 96.79-99.16); 97.6%(95% CI 95.91-98.58) and 99% (95% CI 97.74-99.58) respectively. The differences between each RDT and ELISA, and between RST and TPHA were statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: A more judicious choice of RST and the retention of healthy volunteer blood donors could help reduce the transmission of transfusion-transmissible infections at the HJY.