الفهرس 
AcknowledgmentOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Blood transfusion can be life saving, but like all other therapeutic interventions, it has risks as well as benefits. The selection of donors can minimize the risks of blood donation. There is a growing interest in limiting homologous transfusion by volunteer donors. Autologous transfusion or directed donations which are collection of blood from family or friends are the other alternatives. On the other hand, laboratory testing can identify a vast majority of infectious agents. The prevalence of markers for infectious diseases in blood units can be used to predict transfusion safety. HBY is easily transmitted by all blood components and most blood products and that is why screening of HBsAg is mandatory in blood donors. On the other hand, anti-HBc is considered the most sensitive marker for past or present HBV infection and is therefore suitable for epidemiological studies of the prevalence of HBV. HCY plays a substantial role in transfusion and non transfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis. Anti-HCV seroprevalence among normal blood donors ranged from 0.18-0.2 in Northern Europe and V.S.A. to 39.4 in some African countries. HCV seroprevalent surveys in Egypt demonstrated dramatically high rates exceeding by 5 - 35 fold rates reported elsewhere in most countries. On the other hand, the prevalence of HIV infection was reported to be extremely low in Egypt (0.18) with a lower rate of 0.02 among blood donors. However, the risk of transmission may increase in case of use of unscreened blood for transfusion. In this study, the blood of one hundred professional as well as one hundred nonprofessional blood donors were screened for HBsAg, HBc antibodies, antibodies against HCV, and antibodies against HIV-1 and 2. All these serological assays were carried out by ELISA techniques using Wellcozyme kits purchased from Murex. In addition relevant information were collected from all donors.