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Prevalence, incidence, and risk factors of human immunodeficiency virus infection in blood donors in the Southeastern United States
Author(s) -
Crowder Lauren A.,
Steele Whitney R.,
Notari Edward P.,
Hopkins Courtney K.,
Lima Jose L.O.,
Foster Gregory A.,
Townsend Rebecca L.,
Krysztof David E.,
Dodd Roger Y.,
Stramer Susan L.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
transfusion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.045
H-Index - 132
eISSN - 1537-2995
pISSN - 0041-1132
DOI - 10.1111/trf.13891
Subject(s) - residual risk , medicine , incidence (geometry) , risk factor , donation , blood donor , demography , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , environmental health , immunology , physics , sociology , optics , economics , economic growth
BACKGROUND Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐positive blood donors pose a risk to blood safety. The Southeastern United States has the highest reported HIV infection rates. Here we calculate HIV prevalence, incidence, and residual risk in Southeastern US blood donors and report risk factors disclosed by incident donors in counseling sessions. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS American Red Cross donation and testing data from 2009 to 2014 for three Southeastern collection regions were used to calculate HIV prevalence, incidence, and residual risk. Incident donors had a previous HIV‐negative donation within 730 days of their positive donation. Residual risk was defined as the window period multiplied by incidence. RESULTS From 2009 to 2014, a total of 236 HIV‐positive donors occurred in these regions for an overall prevalence of 8.3 per 100,000 donations. There were 56 incident donors over the 6‐year period with incidence decreasing from 7.1 per 100,000 person‐years (PYs) in the first two years (2009–2010) to 3.5 in the last two years (2013–2014). Residual risk decreased from 1 in 562,000 to 1 in 1,100,000. The most commonly reported risk factor behavior in male incident donors was men who have sex with men; females expressed no predominant risk factor. CONCLUSION HIV prevalence and incidence among blood donors in the southeast are higher than other US regions, consistent with general public health surveillance. However, the overall residual risk estimates are low at less than 1 per million. Ongoing monitoring of the blood supply along with educational efforts to provide infected individuals with alternatives to donation remain important initiatives.