BACKGROUND:

Understanding the latest human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic in voluntary blood donors could be of great value to further increase blood safety in China, as transfusion-transmitted infection places a heavy burden on both infected individuals and the whole society. Therefore, we evaluated the national HIV prevalence of voluntary blood donors in China and characteristics of HIV-infected blood donors.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS:

We searched literature in Chinese and English concerning the prevalence of HIV infections in Chinese voluntary blood donors from 2010 to 2017, yielding 97 eligible papers. We performed a meta-analysis to calculate pooled HIV prevalence, and characteristics of HIV-infected blood donors were also extracted.

RESULTS:

The pooled sample consisted of 21,100,755 voluntary blood donors and 4,755 HIV-infected blood donors. Pooled HIV prevalence of China voluntary blood donors during 2010 to 2017 was 21.02 in 100,000. Pooled HIV prevalence varied in different provinces, showing greater severity in Southwest, Northwest, and South China. Subgroup analysis also showed a significantly increasing trend from 2010 to 2017. The majority of HIV-infected blood donors in China were male, young, unmarried, nonlocal residents, receiving 12 years or less of schooling, and first-time donors. Nearly 90% of HIV-infected blood donors acquired their infections through sexual contact.

CONCLUSION:

The prevalence of HIV increased in China among voluntary blood donors during 2010 to 2017, highlighting the risk of HIV transmission by transfusion. Blood centers and public health services should improve screening and intervention programs targeting voluntary blood donors and expand education on blood safety in areas experiencing severe epidemics and among high-risk populations.