title: Hepatitis A virus transmission by blood products in the United States. Transfusion Safety Study Group.
abstract: To address the question of HAV prevalence and seroconversion in relation to clotting factor concentrates, we assayed an early serum for 339 hemophiliacs followed every 6 months by the Transfusion Safety Study in the period from mid-1985 until mid-1992. We found 58.4% positive around entry, with an age-specific prevalence that did not vary with age. In comparison to rates for anti-HIV-negative blood donors, they were significantly higher. Based on testing of subsequent sera, 11 hemophiliacs (7.8% of 141 susceptibles) changed their anti-HAV status from negative to positive. In 9 instances, positivity immediately followed the first dose of intravenous immune globulin. A possible seroconversion followed treatment with blood components, and a possible seroconversion followed intermediate-purity, solvent/detergent(SD)-treated factor VIII concentrate. Neither of these 2 patients was anti-HAV IgM positive, so that passively transferred antibody is possible. The high prevalence among hemophiliacs at entry must be further investigated by determining the expected background rate in a US population similar to the hemophilia patients, and by comparing anti-HAV prevalence associated with SD-treated and heat-inactivated concentrates.
authors.affiliation: University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90032.
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Mosley
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Nowicki
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Kasper
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Donegan
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Aledort
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Hilgartner
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Operskalski
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D016913:Blood Component Transfusion / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications; D006506:Hepatitis A / Q000150:complications / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D014481:United States