Background: Blood transfusion has become one of the important modalities of treatment in hospitals these days. Transfusion transmissible infections (TTI) remain one of major complications of blood transfusion. This study is aimed at assessing the seroprevalence of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) among healthy blood donors in our region and its implications in safe blood practices. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study done over a period of 3 years from August 2015 to July 2018 in two blood banks of Gadag i.e. Gadag Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) blood bank and Indian Medical Association (IMA) blood bank. A total of 20,144 blood donors were included in the study. It included both voluntary donors and replacement donors. Donors were screened using donor questionnaire form followed by general physical examination for medical and surgical illness. The blood samples of eligible blood donors were subjected to a test that detected the presence of antibodies to HCV by using Qualisa 3rd generation ELISA kit. Result: In the present study, the total number of donors is 20,144. Out of this, 19,676 (97.67%) were males and 468 (2.33%) were females. Out of 20,144 donors, 16,541 (82.1%) were voluntary donors and 3603 (17.9%) were replacement donors. Total number of seropositive cases of hepatitis C was 9. The overall seroprevalence was 0.045%. All the seropositive cases were males. The prevalence of seropositive cases among voluntary donors was 0.03% and among replacement donors was 0.14%. Conclusion: Seroprevalence of Hepatitis C infection in the region of Gadag is 0.045%.

Keywords: Seroprevalence; Replacement donors; Voluntary donors