Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Mar 27;7(3):600-6.
doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i3.600.

Occult hepatitis B virus infection and blood transfusion

Dong Hee Seo  1 , Dong Hee Whang  1 , Eun Young Song  1 , Kyou Sup Han  1
Affiliations
Review

Occult hepatitis B virus infection and blood transfusion

Dong Hee Seo et al. World J Hepatol. .

Abstract

Transfusion-transmitted infections including hepatitis B virus (HBV) have been a major concern in transfusion medicine. Implementation of HBV nucleic acid testing (NAT) has revealed occult HBV infection (OBI) in blood donors. In the mid-1980s, hepatitis B core antibody (HBc) testing was introduced to screen blood donors in HBV non-endemic countries to prevent transmission of non-A and non-B hepatitis. That test remains in use for preventing of potential transmission of HBV from hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-negative blood donors, even though anti-hepatitis C virus tests have been introduced. Studies of anti-HBc-positive donors have revealed an HBV DNA positivity rate of 0%-15%. As of 2012, 30 countries have implemented HBV NAT. The prevalence of OBI in blood donors was estimated to be 8.55 per 1 million donations, according to a 2008 international survey. OBI is transmissible by blood transfusion. The clinical outcome of occult HBV transmission primarily depends on recipient immune status and the number of HBV DNA copies present in the blood products. The presence of donor anti-HBs reduces the risk of HBV infection by approximately five-fold. The risk of HBV transmission may be lower in endemic areas than in non-endemic areas, because most recipients have already been exposed to HBV. Blood safety for HBV, including OBI, has substantially improved, but the possibility for OBI transmission remains.

Keywords: Anti-hepatitis B core antibody; Blood service; Nucleic acid testing; Occult hepatitis B infection; Transfusion.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Prevalence of anti-hepatitis B core in blood donors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Korelitz JJ, Busch MP, Kleinman SH, Williams AE, Gilcher RO, Ownby HE, Schreiber GB. A method for estimating hepatitis B virus incidence rates in volunteer blood donors. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study. Transfusion. 1997;37:634–640. - PubMed
    1. Wang JT, Lee CZ, Chen PJ, Wang TH, Chen DS. Transfusion-transmitted HBV infection in an endemic area: the necessity of more sensitive screening for HBV carriers. Transfusion. 2002;42:1592–1597. - PubMed
    1. Candotti D, Allain JP. Transfusion-transmitted hepatitis B virus infection. J Hepatol. 2009;51:798–809. - PubMed
    1. Perkins HA, Busch MP. Transfusion-associated infections: 50 years of relentless challenges and remarkable progress. Transfusion. 2010;50:2080–2099. - PubMed
    1. Roth WK, Weber M, Petersen D, Drosten C, Buhr S, Sireis W, Weichert W, Hedges D, Seifried E. NAT for HBV and anti-HBc testing increase blood safety. Transfusion. 2002;42:869–875. - PubMed