Hepatitis B Viral DNA Among HBs Antigen Negative Healthy Blood Donors

Abstract

BackgroundPresence of occult hepatitis B infection (OBI) renders HBs antigen (HBsAg) undetectable by ELISA. Therefore it is valuable to evaluate the frequency of OBI among healthy blood donors to improve and perhaps change the strategies of blood screening to reduce the risk of HBV transmission.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to determine the presence of HBcAb and HBV DNA among Iranian HBsAg negative healthy blood donors who donated their blood to the Tehran Blood Transfusion Center during 2011.Patients and Methods1000 serum specimens negative for HBsAg, HCV antibody and HIV antibody were collected from healthy blood donors and tested for HBcAb. Presence of hepatitis B viral DNA was checked in HBcAb positive samples by nested PCR with two sets of primers to amplify part of HBV S gene.ResultsThere were 64 women and 936 men in the population under study. The mean ± SD age of the donors was 38 ± 11 years. 80 out of 1000 samples (8%) were found to be positive for HBcAb. HBV DNA was detected in 50% of HBcAb positive specimens. The mean ± SD age of donors without HBV DNA was 37.7 ± 10.5 years and for donors with HBV DNA was 40.9 ± 11.2 years (P = 0.05).ConclusionsOBI was prevalent among 50% of HBcAb positive healthy blood donors. The frequency of positive HBcAb among healthy HBsAg negative blood donors was comparable to previous studies reported from Iran. On the other hand, the frequency of HBV DNA in HBsAg negative blood donors was higher than previous reports.

Hepatitis B Virus DNA in Sera of Apparently Healthy Carriers Blood Donors with Anti-Hbc Total Positive

“…This result is in agreement with that was reported by Lebanese researchers in 2007, whom found that 5.4% of healthy blood donors with core antibody have detectable viral load (El-Zaatari, et al, 2007) as well as our results compatible with that was previously reported by Iranian researchers in 2013 whom found half of anti-HBc Abs positive samples were also positive for HBV-DNA among Iranian blood donors (Vaezjalali, et al, 2013). Also our results in line with recently published report in Malaysia, they were found that the 5.5% prevalence of occult hepatitis B among Malaysian blood donors (Hudu, et al, 2016).The high percentage in this study may be due to the small size of the study population compared with above studies.…”

Occult Hepatitis B Infection in Hepatitis C Patients with Hematological Disorders

“…The gold standard for diagnosis of OBI is liver biopsy and detecting the presence of HBV DNA in hepatocytes (1)(2)(3). An alternative method for diagnosis of OBI is detecting HBV DNA in peripheral blood samples.…”

RESULTS OF GENOTYPING HEPATITIS VIRUS B IN HBsAg-NEGATIVE BLOOD DONORS IN ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN

“…The intra-group percentage of nucleotide identity among blood donors with HBV subgenotypes D1, D2 and D3 was 98.05±0.7%, 99.1±0.35% and 98.9±0.45%, respectively. Phylogenetic relationships between the studied isolates of OHB obtained from blood donors from the Republic of Kazakhstan and reference sequences from the international GenBank database are presented in Figure. It is known that in most of the territory of the former USSR and in the countries of the Baltic region, HBV subgenotype D2 prevails, the subgenotypes A2 and D3 [46] are present, while for the countries of Central Asia the distribution of the HBV subgenotypes shifts towards the predominance of the subgenotype D1. Thus, the high occurrence of the subgenotype D1 corresponds to the previously obtained data on the molecular genetic characteristics of HBV in Central Asia, however, the increased incidence of HBV D2 and D3 is noteworthy.…”

“…Nevertheless, the general data vary depending on the methods of virus definition, including the variety of commercial kits for detecting HBsAg and HBV DNA, and the reported prevalence of OHB, especially among healthy blood donors, varies. For example, the prevalence of HBsAg in the Iranian population and in blood donors is 2.6% and 0.4%, respectively, while the prevalence of OHB among blood donors was estimated to be slightly more than 4% [10,42,46]. Data on the prevalence of OHB in the population of the Republic of Kazakhstan could not be found, but it can be assumed that with such a high prevalence among blood donors, in the population, the OHB can also be widely spread.…”