Retrospective follow-up of recipients and donors of blood donations reactive for anti-HBc or for single HCV antibodies

A retrospective study was undertaken to investigate the infectivity of bloo d donations that were HCV RIBA indeterminate or reactive for 'anti-HBc only ', Samples from 6032 blood donations were tested for anti-HBc; 17 of them w ere positive for anti-HBc but were negative when tested for anti-HBs. None of the recipients of the red cells from these donations, when tested 9 mont hs after transfusion, had evidence of HBV infection. Samples from 3000 bloo d donations were tested for HCV antibodies using RIBA-3;53 had single lines . Samples taken 9 months after transfusion from the recipients of the red c ells from these donations were tested for evidence of infection with hepati tis C, and all were negative.