Evaluation of Blood Units with Isolated Anti HBC for the Presence of HBV DNA

We screened blood donors in one center in Saudi Arabia for a safety transfusion. We found that among 5043 blood donors negative for HCV and HIV, the incidence of HBsAg positivity was 2.97%. When antiHBc antibody was measured (HBcIg) in HBsAg negative donors, we observed that 21.47% were positive indicating previous exposure to hepatitis B virus. The HBcIg positive blood was further screened for HBsAb and the specimens were found to be reactive in 81.54%. Based on these data blood transfusion was permissible from donors who showed HBsAg negativity, HBcIg positive and HBsAb reactive blood. In order to ensure safety transfusion an aliquot of specimens (n = 80) was further analyzed for HBV DNA by PCR. We found only one specimen positive with incidence of 1.25%. So we recommended restricting transfusion from the previously mentioned donors to emergencies.