HEPATITIS-C VIRAL MARKERS IN PATIENTS WHO RECEIVED BLOOD THAT WAS POSITIVE FOR HEPATITIS-C VIRUS CORE ANTIBODY, WITH GENETIC-EVIDENCE OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS TRANSMISSION
M. Watanabe et al., HEPATITIS-C VIRAL MARKERS IN PATIENTS WHO RECEIVED BLOOD THAT WAS POSITIVE FOR HEPATITIS-C VIRUS CORE ANTIBODY, WITH GENETIC-EVIDENCE OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS TRANSMISSION, Transfusion, 34(2), 1994, pp. 125-129
Background: Despite the use of the anti-c100-3 assay for blood donor s
creening, posttransfusion non-A,non-B hepatitis still occurred. A more
sensitive assay should be developed to prevent this. Study Design and
Methods: Stored serum specimens from 2020 healthy blood donors who we
re negative for c100-3 antibody to hepatitis C virus (HCV) were retros
pectively screened for the presence of antibodies against a core prote
in of HCV using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blot
analysis as part of a study on posttransfusion non-A,non-B hepatitis.
Results: Eight (0.4%) of the 2020 donors were positive for HCV core an
tibody. Posttransfusion non-A,non-B hepatitis occurred in 5 of five pa
tients known to have received blood that was positive for HCV core ant
ibody and 1 of 141 patients transfused with blood that was negative fo
r HCV core antibody. The total incidence of posttransfusion non-A,non-
B hepatitis was 4.1 percent (6/146). The nucleotide sequence of the no
nstructural 5 region of the HCV genome obtained from two donors and co
rresponding recipients was also analyzed. The HCV genome sequences wer
e identical for one donor-recipient pair, and there was 99.4-percent h
omology for a second pair. Conclusion: Anti-core-positive blood proved
to be highly infectious for HCV, and this validated the use of the se
cond-generation anti-HCV assay for blood donor screening.