Hepatitis C viraemia in United Kingdom blood donors. A multicentre study.
Of 10,633 blood donations tested in three regional blood transfusion centres with two commercial first generation screening assays for antibodies to the hepatitis C virus (HCV), 65 (0.61%) were found to be repeatedly reactive in one or both assays. Five of the 65 were confirmed positive by recombinant immunoblot assay (Ortho RIBA-2) and a further 4 were judged indeterminate. All 5 RIBA-2 positive donations and 1 of the 4 RIBA-2 indeterminates were shown to be viraemic by HCV-RNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays performed at three independent reference laboratories. The remaining 56 screen test reactive donations proved negative by RIBA-2 and, with 1 exception, negative by PCR. We conclude that while first generation anti-HCV screening assays generate a high proportion of false reactions when screening low prevalence populations, results of the RIBA-2 confirmatory test correlate well with PCR findings and thus indirectly with both hepatitis C viraemia and infectivity.
Garson
J A
JA
Department of Medical Microbiology, University College and Middlesex School of Medicine, London, UK.
Clewley
J P
JP
Simmonds
P
P
Zhang
L Q
LQ
Mori
J
J
Ring
C
C
Follett
E A
EA
Dow
B C
BC
Martin
S
S
Gunson
H
H
D001483:Base Sequence; D001782:Blood Donors; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology; D014766:Viremia / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology
D006508:Hepatitis Antibodies; D012367:RNA, Viral