PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Vilaysone Khounvisith AU - Sonephet Saysouligno AU - Bounpalisone Souvanlasy AU - Somxay Billamay AU - Sodaly Mongkhoune AU - Bounta Vongphachanh AU - Chantal J Snoeck AU - Antony P Black AU - Claude P Muller AU - Judith M Hübschen TI - Hepatitis B virus and other transfusion-transmissible infections in child blood recipients in Lao People’s Democratic Republic: a hospital-based study AID - 10.1136/archdischild-2022-324629 DP - 2023 Jan 01 TA - Archives of Disease in Childhood PG - 15--19 VI - 108 IP - 1 4099 - http://adc.bmj.com/content/108/1/15.short 4100 - http://adc.bmj.com/content/108/1/15.full SO - Arch Dis Child2023 Jan 01; 108 AB - Introduction Children requiring multiple blood transfusions are at high risk of transfusion-transmissible infections (TTIs). Lao People’s Democratic Republic is a low-resource setting where donor blood screening faces challenges. This study aimed to determine the burden of TTIs in children in Vientiane Capital.Methods 300 children with transfusion history and 300 controls were recruited. In addition, 49 newly diagnosed transfusion recipients were followed for up to 12 months. Serum was tested for hepatitis B surface antigen and IgG antibodies against parvovirus B19, hepatitis B, C and E viruses.Results The patients had a similar prevalence of anti-hepatitis B core antibodies (56; 18.7%) and hepatitis B surface antigen (8; 2.7%) as the controls (58; 19.3% and 9; 3.0%, respectively). However, there was a higher prevalence of an antibody profile suggestive of hepatitis B vaccination (anti-hepatitis B surface antibody positive/anti-hepatitis B core antibody negative) in the transfused group (140/299; 46.8%) than in controls (77/300; 25.7%, p<0.01). All other markers were similar in the patients and controls or higher in the controls: anti-hepatitis C virus (2.7% and 3.3%, p=0.6), anti-hepatitis E virus (7.5% and 12.7%, p=0.006) and anti-parvovirus B19 (2.4% and 8.5%, p=0.001). The longitudinal cohort did not show an increase in any marker over time.Conclusion Our results suggest no significant role of TTIs in Lao children. The higher prevalence of the hepatitis B vaccination profile in transfusion recipients showed that recommendations to vaccinate before commencing transfusions is at least partially implemented, although there is room for improvement.All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.