Udomah F

The aim of this study was to determine the ABO and Rhesus D Blood group and CMV Status of blood donors in Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto. Two hundred and ninety (290) consecutively –recruited blood donors, consisting of 287 males and 3 females aged 19 – 55 years with mean age 39 ± 21 years were screened for their ABO and Rh D blood group and CMV antibodies status using the Lorne Laboratories (UK) antisera and CTK Biotech (U.S.A.) Onsite CMV IgG/IgM Duo rapid test for CMV-IgG and IgM detection. The result shows that 57.9% of the donors were CMV positive for IgM only, 3.1% were positive for both IgM and IgG and 4.82% were positive for IgG only while the remaining 34.18% were negative. The prevalence of CMV positivity was higher among blood group O donors (30.7%) compared to blood group A (16.2%), B (15.5%) and AB (0.34%). CMV positivity was higher among blood donors  in the 25-29 years age group (16.6%) compared to those in the 19-24 years (16.2%), 30-35 years (12.1%), 36-40 years (10.3%), 41-45 years (8.7%), 46- 50 years (1.40%) and 51-55 years age group (0.70%). This present study indicates mild endemicity of CMV infection among blood donors in Sokoto, Nigeria. There is need to routinely screen blood donors for CMV particularly for donor units intended for use in neonates, pregnant women, AIDS patients, immunosuppressed and transplant patients. The use of leucocyte- rich whole blood transfusion should be discouraged in Nigeria. Effort should be made to implement universal leucodepletion of donated units. There is also the need to educate clinical staff to ensure that CMV negative units are requested for patients in whom CMV negative units are indicated.

The aim of this study was to investigate the Hepatitis B immunity status of Biomedical Students of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, North-Western Nigeria. CTK Biotech (USA) Onsite HBsAb ELISA kit was used for the determination of HBsAb status of subjects. We investigated the HBsAb status of 186 biomedical students aged ≥ 18 years (mean age 26 ± 2.0 years) made up of 147 males and 39 females. Out of 186 subject analyzed, 69 (37.1%) were Medical, 75(40.3%) were Medical Laboratory Science and 42(22.6%) were Nursing students. Age group distribution among these subject shows that majority 108(58.0%) were in the 21-25 years age group. Subjects were stratified based on marital status. Majority of subjects were single 173(93.1%) compared to married 13 (6.9%). Ethnic distribution of subjects indicated that 104(55.9%) were Hausa, 32 (17.2%) were Yoruba while 20(10.8%), 9(4.8%) and 21(11.3%) were Fulani, Igbo and other ethnic groups respectively. Among the 186 subjects studied, only 13(7.0%) has had prior complete course of hepatitis B vaccination (p=0.001). Protective HBsAb titre (>10miu/ml) was evident in 72(38.7%) of the subjects while 114 (61.3%) did not had no protective HBsAb titre (