Prevalence of Hepatitis B Cab with or Without Anti Hbsab in Hbsag Seronegative Blood Donors

Introduction: There are multiple reports of Acute Hepatitis B after blood transfusion inspite of good screening for Hepatitis B before transfusion. Therefore, occult hepatitis B is a serious concern for Blood transfusion. There is a lot of evidence that positive HBCAb in seronegative HBSAg blood donors is associated with occult Hepatitis B. Aim: Evaluation of the prevalence of HBCAb in seronegative HBSAg blood donors. Method: In a cross sectional descriptive study, we evaluated the serum of 1230 Blood donors for HBCAb, HCVAb and Aminotranferase levels. HBSAg or AntiHIV Ab positive cases were excluded from the study. Detection of Anti HBSAb was done in HBCAb positive patients and liver biopsy was performed in all HCVAb positive cases. Results: 15.1% of blood donors were positive for HBCAb and 51.6% of them had Anti HBSAb. Aminotranferase levels were normal in all people who were positive for HBCAb ,but about 50% of HCVAb positive persons had elevated aminotransferase levels and liver biopsy of all these patients showed inflammation Conclusion: Prevalence of HBCAb is high in our seronegative HBSAg Blood donors and biomolecular studies such as PCR for HBV DNA is indicated in HBCAb positive people, especially in people with isolated HBCAb .