[Epidemiological study of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in plasmapheresis and blood donors]

We actively adopted method to control hepatitis C (HC) epidemic in blood sampling. ELISA was used to detect anti-HCV antibody in different groups of 2348 blood donors. The positive rates of anti-HCV for plasmaphersis and whole blood donors were 0.58% (2/343) and 1.34% (27/2005) respectively, with no statistical significance (P > 0.05). The positive rates of anti-HCV for plasmapheresis donors in 1-2 years and over 9 years were 0.99% (7/701) and 0.74% (2/270) respectively. There was no significant difference (P > 0.05) either. The positive rates of anti-HCV for plasmapheresis donors in 1992 and in 1994 were 1.64% (7/426), and 0.58% (2/343). The results showed that HCV infection rate did not increase in plasmapheresis donors, nor did it increase parallel with the increasing gears of blood donnation.