Prevalence of blood borne viruses in IVF: an audit of a fertility Centre

OBJECTIVE: The rate of infertility continues to be on the increase in the developing world. Similarly, the rates of blood-borne viral infections (BBVs) such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) are also on this rise. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) quoted prevalences of 1.5% (HIV), 15% (HBV) 1.3 - 8.4% (HCV) in the Ghanaian general population. It has been reported that BBVs can adversely affect male fertility, specifically sperm count and progressive motility. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of BBVs in people with infertility attending an IVF clinic and whether or not BBVs impacted on sperm parameters. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study at a private fertility center in Accra, Ghana. We had 229 recruited couples assayed for HBV, HCV and HIV. Sperm parameters of the male partners were also assessed. The analysis performed included student t-test and Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: We found prevalence rates of 1.7% (HIV), 7.9% (HBV) and 0.4% (HCV), which is similar to what has already been reported in the Ghanaian community. There was no significant difference between BBV positive and negative subjects for sperm count (13.6 million/ml vs. 17.7 million/ml, P = 0.0599), percentage of progressive motility (26% vs. 30%, P = 0.2129), percentage of normal forms (3% vs. 3%, P = 0.0617) and clinical pregnancy rates per embryo transfer (36.1% vs 34.9%, P = 0.5) between BBV positive and BBV negative subjects, respectively. CONCLUSION: There is a similar prevalence of BBVs in sub-fertile couples and the general Ghanaian population. However, no detrimental effect has been reported for sperm parameters on grounds of BBV infectivity of the male partner.