Detection of Syphilis among Blood Donors in Khartoum Teaching Hospital Using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of syphilis among blood donors in Khartoum Teaching Hospital. A total of 150 blood donors were screened to detect the presence of specific antibodies against Treponema pallidum by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) according to standard test kit protocol. All donors are males with ages ranging from15-60 years with mean (29.4) most of them between 15-30 years. Nine (6%) of the donors had serological evidence of syphilis ( seropositive ), eight(5.3%) of the seropositives were married and one(0.7%) was a single and the differences in the prevalence of syphilis between married and single donors are significant (P<0.05). The seroprevalence differs with age and there was significant (p<0.05) higher prevalence was observed among the age group of 31-45years old. More research work is required for screening of this disease to determine the magnitude of this disease among blood donors.