Detection of anti-HBS and anti-HBS antibodies in blood donors negative for hepatitis B virus surface antigen

Abstract EN

The Objectives : safety of blood products is one of the major issues in the area of transfusion medicine.

In previous study we found that hepatitis B virus was epidemic in some of Basrah medical institutions to assess the prevalence of anti-HBc and anti-HBs antibodies in serum samples of healthy blood donors negative for both HBs Ag and anti-HCV in the Central Blood Bank, Basrah-Iraq.

Results : 204 serum samples negative for both HBs Ag and anti-HCV collected from healthy blood donors were tested for the presence of HBs Ag, anti-HBs, HBe Ag, anti-HBe and anti-HBc by using rapid chromatographic immunoassay.

Of the 204 samples tested, 13 (6.37 %) of the HBs Ag negative blood samples were found to be positive for anti-HBc.

3(1.47 %) out of 13 anti-HBc positive were found positive for anti-HBs.

Conclusion : detection of anti-HBc and anti-HBs antibodies were more important than other markers in detection of latent Hepatitis B virus infection.