Prevalence of HIV infection, Syphilis, and Syphilis/HIV coinfection in blood donors from a blood bank of Porto Alegre, southern Brazil

Introduction: Hemotherapy consists of therapeutic treatments performed through blood transfusion. Clinical and serological screening of donors is an essential strategy to avoid transmission of infectious agents in blood transfusion. Objectives: Toassess the seroprevalence of HIV infection, syphilis and syphilis/HIV coinfection in blood donors from a blood bank in Porto Alegre from 2014 to 2016. Methods: Retrospective analysis of all blood donors registered on a software for managing hemotherapy services (Hemodot) of the Blood Bank in the Marques Pereira Laboratory, Porto Alegre / RS, from 2014 to 2016. Results: Of the 28,173 users of the hemotherapy service during the study period, 198 (0.70%) were positive for syphilis, HIV infection, or syphilis/HIV co infection. The prevalence of positive results for syphilis was 0.3%, 0.57% and 0.70% in 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively, and for HIV infection was 0.18%, 0.14%, and 0.16% for the same period. However, the prevalence of syphilis/HIV coinfection was not statistically significant. Conclusions: The prevalence of syphilis increased significantly from 2014 to 2016. Hovever, this did not occur with HIV infection or with coinfection. This finding may reflect the requirement of the nucleic acid technique (NAT) for HIV screening in blood banks, a procedure that has been increasing transfusion safety and reducing the window period. Further studies may shed new light on the combined use of serological tests and NAT assays in blood banks to diagnose HIV cases and syphilis/HIV coinfection. Key Words: Coinfection; transfusion safety; hemocenter; infectious disease; syphilis; HI