Prevalence of Occult Hepatitis B Infection Among Blood Donors with HBsAg Negative and HBcAb Positive by Real Time PCR in South of Iran

Occult hepatitis B virus infection in blood donors threats the safety of the blood supply.  It is characterized by detection of low viral DNA in the serum subjects who have negative test for Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of occult hepatitis B virus infection among HBsAg negative and HBcAb positive in blood donors of Bushehr blood transfusion organization      

The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 1000 blood donors referring to Bushehr blood transfusion organization between November 2017 and January 2019.  All subjects were negative for HBsAg and were tested for HBcAb by use of ELISA technique. The samples that were positive for HBcAb marker also analyzed for the presence of viral DNA by Real time PCR. The data were analyzed using SPSS Ver. 22.0 and chi-square tests

30 (3%) out of 1000 samples were HBcAb positive. Of these 30 samples, 29 (97%) were male and 1 (3%) was female. A significant association was found between level of education and HBcAb positive (p=0.028). Also, there was a significant association between marital status and HBcAb positive (p=0.001). HBV-DNA was not detected in any of the cases with isolated HBcAb. The results showed no significant relationship between HBcAb positive and occult hepatitis B virus infection (p> 0.05)

Although the viral genome was not present in any of the HBcAb positive and HBsAg negative blood donors in Bushehr Blood Transfusion Organization, but to improve the health of donated blood, it is recommended that HBcAb testing and PCR method be used to determine the prevalence of occult hepatitis B infection in HBsAg-negative blood donors in a wider range of blood donors. Therefore, serological HBsAg testing alone cannot detect occult hepatitis B infection in blood donors.