Prevalence of hepatitis B virus core antibodies among blood donors in Nigeria: Implications for blood safety

African Journal of Laboratory Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Prevalence of hepatitis B virus core antibodies among blood donors in Nigeria: Implications for blood safety
 
Creator Fasola, Foluke A. Fowotade, Adeola A. Faneye, Adedayo O. Adeleke, Adeyeni
 
Subject Medicine; Hematology; Blood transfusion anti-HBc antibodies; donors; blood safety; HBV DNA; occult HBV
Description Background: Anti-hepatitis B core antibody (anti-HBc) testing improves transfusion safety by detecting past and current hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection while detecting hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in serology-negative HBV infection. However, occult HBV infection (OBI) (serum or liver HBV DNA-positive but HBsAg-negative) remains unaddressed among replacement blood donors – family members or friends who donate to replace blood transfused to a relative.Objective: This study assessed risk factors for a positive anti-HBc test among donors with OBI and determined the anti-HBc-positive status of replacement donors.Methods: The study was conducted at the University College Hospital Blood Bank, Ibadan, Nigeria, using blood samples collected from blood donors between April 2019 and May 2019. Donors were screened for HBsAg by rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and anti-HBc by ELISA, while HBV DNA was detected using a semi-nested polymerase chain reaction.Results: Of the 274 participants, 15 (5.5%) were HBsAg-positive by RDT and 36 (13.1%) by ELISA, while 133 (48.5%) were anti-HBc positive. Out of 232 HBsAg-negative donors, 107 (46.1%) were anti-HBc positive. Of the 107 HBsAg-negative but anti-HBc-positive samples, only one (0.93%) was HBV DNA-positive. The HBV DNA-positive donor was HBsAg-negative by both RDT and ELISA tests.Conclusion: This study establishes a potential risk for HBV transmission from isolated anti-HBc-positive donors to blood recipients. HBc immunoglobulin (antibody) M testing to identify blood units requiring further screening with polymerase chain reaction to detect OBI can prevent HBV transmission through blood transfusion. 
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor None
Date 2022-07-26
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ajlm.v11i1.1434
 
Source African Journal of Laboratory Medicine; Vol 11, No 1 (2022); 8 pages 2225-2010 2225-2002
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://ajlmonline.org/index.php/ajlm/article/view/1434/2333 https://ajlmonline.org/index.php/ajlm/article/view/1434/2334 https://ajlmonline.org/index.php/ajlm/article/view/1434/2335 https://ajlmonline.org/index.php/ajlm/article/view/1434/2336
 
Coverage Sub-Sahara Africa — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Foluke A. Fasola, Adeola A. Fowotade, Adedayo O. Faneye, Adeyeni Adeleke https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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