Australian Blood Donors Surveillance Report 2011

The Annual Surveillance Report on Transfusion-transmissible Infections (TTI) in Australia provides a comprehensive analysis of trends in transfusion-transmissible infections among Australian blood donors. The report aims to provide evidence to inform the ongoing assessment of laboratory testing algorithms for detecting transfusion-transmissible infections as well as evaluation and revision of donor education guidelines for minimising the risk of transfusion-transmissible infections and thus maximising the safety of the Australian blood supply.

Key findings
  • More than 7.3 million donations were tested for transfusion-transmissible infections in Australia during 2005 – 2010 with an average of about 1.2 million donations per year.
  • The number of blood donations steadily increased during 2005 to 2009 and then slightly declined (0.67%), in 2010.
  • During 2005 – 2010, a total of 1,483 (20.25 per 100,000 donations) were found positive for at least one of the transfusion-transmissible infections – hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), human T‑cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV), or active syphilis.
  • Overall, HCV and HBV were the two most common infections diagnosed in Australian blood donors during 2005-2010, together contributing more than 94% of all infections.
  • In general, the presence of any transfusion-transmissible infection among Australian blood donations has remained low during 2005 – 2010 and has decreased steadily over the past three years, from 22.3 per 100,000 donations in 2008 to 16.9 per 100,000 donations in 2010.
Australian Blood Donors Surveillance Report 2011 2.67 MB pdf
Year published
2011
Report type
Australian Blood Donor Surveillance Reports
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