Frequency of Anti-HBc & HBV DNA detection in blood donors of Kerman province, Iran

Hepatitis B is a serious global infection disease and a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. However, data on Occult Hepatitis B in Iran are scare. The current study assessed the frequency of Anti-HBc and HBV DNA in serum sample of healthy blood donors negative for HBsAg stratified by sex and age; and also investigated the relationship between detection of HBV-DNA and anti-HBc positivity. Since anti-HBc screening is not performed in Iranian Blood Bank, we assessed whether anti-HBc could be adopted as a screening assay for the donated blood. The study included a total of 1525 blood samples of blood donors negative for hepatitis B virus surface antigen ( 87% male with a mean age ± SD: of 31±8yr; and 13% female with a mean age ± SD of 30±6yr). Eight percent (121 out of 1525) of the blood samples with negative HBs-Ag were positive for Anti-HBc and were all from males. HBV-DNA was detected in 36 out of 121 anti-HBc+ specimens (29.7%). The study found a positive relation between anti-HBc positivity and detection of HBV-DNA in serum samples of HBs-Ag negative blood donors. Findings from this study suggest that, introducing anti HBc screening in Iran maybe very practical in order to limit the transmission risk of Occult Hepatitis B virus through blood transfusion.