Characteristics of new HIV-1 infection among voluntary blood donors in Huzhou from 2016 to 2022

Objective To investigate the characteristics of HIV-1 infection among voluntary blood donors in Huzhou City from 2016 to 2022. Methods A total of 233 552 voluntary blood donors in Huzhou, Zhejiang from January 2016 to December 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. Blood donors who were qualified for health examination were required to take EDTA-K2 anticoagulant blood samples by bypass during blood donation. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for initial screening and re-examination of HIV antigen / antibody. The results were determined in strict accordance with the criteria in National AIDS Testing Technical Specification(2015 Revision). HIV-1 antibody-positive samples were detected by HIV-1 new infection enzyme immunoassay kit, and the restricted antigen affinity method was used to detect whether the samples were new infections. Samples with CD4 cells > 200 / L and the viral load > 1 000 copies / mL were defined as new infection. The positive rate of HIV-1 antibody in each year was compared. With the positive rate of HIV-1 antibody used as the base, the incidence of new HIV-1 infections among subgroups of HIV-1 antibody positive patients of different types (gender, age, occupation, etc.) was compared. Results From 2016 to 2022, there were 233 552 blood samples from voluntary blood donors in Huzhou, including 15 HIV-1 antibody positive samples, with infection rate of 6.42/100 000, among which 40.00% were newly infected and 60.00% were previously infected. From 2016 to 2022, the HIV-1 infection rate showed a downward trend year by year as 1.62%, 1.24%, 0.63%, 0.31%, 0.30%, 0.28% and 0.27%, respectively. The comparision of new infection rate of HIV-1 in different subgroups of 15 HIV-1 antibody positive patients showed that the new infection rate of HIV-1 in repeated blood donation subgroup was higher than that in the first-time blood donation subgroup, with no statistical difference(P>0.05). The incidence of new HIV-1 infections in males was higher than that in females, but there was no statistically significant difference between groups (P>0.05). Among HIV-1 antibody positive blood donors with different educational backgrounds, the proportion of newly infected individuals with junior high school or below was relatively high, but there was no difference compared to other educational subgroups (P>0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of new HIV-1 infections among different occupational subgroups (P>0.05). Conclusion In recent years, the incidence of HIV-1 new infections in Huzhou has decreased year by year, and there is no obvious distribution characteristics of new infections in the subgroups of first-time blood donation and repeated blood donation subgroups, as well as subgroups of different genders, educational backgrounds and occupations.