Post-transfusion viral hepatitis in sickle Cell Anaemia: Retrospective-Prospective analysis

Several complications of sickle cell anaemia (SCA) are well known including hepatobiliary dysfunction. We here present a study 151 randomly selected SCA patients to highlight the contributory role of blood transfusion to the development of viral hepatitis in them. Twenty (13.2%) had not received blood transfusion and no case of acute viral hepatitis (AVH) was recorded in them. One hundred and thirty one (86.8%) had received an average of 4.2 pints of blood as at the time of study. Sixteen (12.3%) of these developed post-transfusion hepatitis (PTH) out of which 8 (50%) were positive for hepatitis B virus during the acute hepatitic phase. In the post-hepatitic state, 4 patients were positive for HbsAg only while 5 tested positive for anti-HCV only and I patient had both viruses. Six patients were seronegative for both HbsAg and anti-HVC. Three of the seronegative patients had previously been seropositive for HbsAg and anti-HCV. Three of the seronegative patients had previously been seropositive for HbsAg in the acute hepatitic phase. It is concluded that blood transfusion carries a significant risk for the development of PTH in SCA. We suggest more vigorous efforts by the government and the transfusion centers on strict adherence to blood safety guidelines. [Nig J Clinical Practice Vol.5(1) 2002: 16-19