Risk factors associated with hepatitis B exposure and the reliability of five rapid kits commonly used for screening blood donors in Ghana

Abstract

BackgroundHepatitis B virus infection (HBV) is one of the most widespread, chronic viral infections in sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of South America. Therefore, efforts are being made to implement strategies aimed at reducing the incidence of hepatitis B viral infections. One route of HBV transmission is through unsafe blood transfusion, which could occur from the use of less sensitive laboratory diagnostic kits. Information on the sensitivity and specificity of these kits is however limited in many developing countries. This study was therefore performed to describe the prevalence of HBV infections and also to evaluate the performance of five rapid immunochromatographic kits commonly used in Ghana.MethodsA cross-sectional study was designed to describe the prevalence of HBsAg infection and also evaluate the performance of rapid kits used for screening hepatitis B in the northern part of Ghana.ResultsA total of 164 prospective blood donors were enrolled in this study from January 2012 to December 2013. The overall true prevalence of HBsAg was 14.6 (95% CI = 9.6 – 21.0). There was no significant association between transmission related factors and HBV infection. The specificities of all five rapid kits were above 97%, however the sensitivities and Youden’s indexes were below 60%. A comparison of the reported kit sensitivities to those generated by this study showed significant difference with the study results being lower than the ones reported in the kit literature.ConclusionOur study has shown that rapid HBsAg kits on the Ghanaian markets may not be helpful for screening blood donor samples. We therefore recommend the use of commercially available enzyme linked immunosorbent assays.

Risk factors associated with horizontal transmission of hepatitis B viral infection from parents to children in Mexico

“…In this study, a history of promiscuity in the children´s parents was associated with risk of HBV infection in their children (p = 0.002). This finding is similar to reports related to risk factors for HBV infection among adults in high prevalence countries [4,8,[18][19][20][21]. In contrast, no vertical mother-tochild HBV transmission seems to have occurred since no newborns were diagnosed with HBV.…”

Hepatitis B in Ghana: a systematic review & meta-analysis of prevalence studies (1995-2015)

“…Across studies included in the review, there was remarkable diversity in participants’ age groups, although, majority of the studies were conducted in adult populations (>16 years). The most prevalent age groups were not specified in 15 studies [ 31 , 34 , 40 , 44 – 47 , 50 – 54 , 56 , 57 ]. One study reported the highest prevalence of HBV infection in participants aged over 40 [ 33 ], while 9 studies reported in those aged 16–39 years.…”

Systematic review of the validity of the hepatitis B virus detection tests in blood banks from 2000 to 2018

“…In addition, Mutocheluh et al in 2014 evaluated the performance of the most common immunochromatographic (ICT) kits (Wondfo, Rapid Care, Core TM, Accul-Tell and Abon) used for screening blood donors in some blood bank facilities in the northern part of Ghana. The reported sensitivities for the HBsAg rapid tests in this study were, Wondfo 59.1% Rapid Care and Accul-Tell 54.5%, and Core TM and Abon 50% [10]. On the other hand, Randrianirina et al , in 2008 and Dogbe et al.…”

“…The authors of studies with the lowest sensitivity indicated that these results are attributed to the deficiency of the tests to detect genotypes and subtypes other than HBV in diverse populations, and also due to technical problems including: lack of quality assurance, poor training, and recertification of laboratory staff in rural areas, problems transporting and storing samples in resource-deficit remote areas, the absence of controls and a lack of evaluation of commercial kits [3,10,17].…”