Chronic hepatitis B carriers found at blood donation: do they need regular follow-up?
It is recommended by the Department of Health and Social Security that hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers found at blood donation should be followed up by specialist liver units. We attempted to do this in 74 such patients found by the Yorkshire Regional Blood Transfusion Service during a 4.5-year period. Only 32 of the patients eventually attended for further investigation and follow-up. However, 43 chronic HBV carriers found at blood donation have been followed for varying periods from 2 to 14 years, and the prognosis has been good. Although this raises the question as to whether such carriers need to be seen routinely in a specialist unit, we suggest that there are good reasons to continue to advocate this policy.
D001706:Biopsy; D001782:Blood Donors; D002353:Carrier State; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000473:pathology / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male