Correlation of Serological and Molecular Methods in Hepatitis B & C Reactive Blood Donors

Background: The Standards for Blood Banks & Blood Transfusion Services, issued by NACO mention that all collected blood units should be tested for the mandatory five tests before issuing to any patient. The choice of method may depend upon the number of units collected by the blood centre, availability of trained staff and equipment apart from cost feasibility. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and viral load of HBV DNA and HCV RNA in Hepatitis B & C reactive donors respectively, and hence it was intended to contribute in determining whether routine HBsAg and HCV screening of blood donors, using ELISA method alone, provide any concrete benefits with regard to HBV and HCV risk reduction.

Material & Methods: A total of 20,917 blood donors were screened for HBV, HCV, HIV, Syphilis and Malarial parasite as part of routine blood donation screening at a tertiary care teaching hospital blood centre in Western India. 110 donors having reactive report for HBV and 11 donors having reactive report for HCV were used for the present study.

Results: 110 donors were found to be reactive for HBsAg by ELISA testing. Out of these 110 reactive HBsAg donors, only 72 (65%) showed positive results in HBV DNA test. 11 tested anti-HCV positive in ELISA. Out of 11, only 7 (63%) showed positive results in HCV RNA test.

Conclusion: In the present study, approximately 35% of the screened units which were reactive for ELISA were negative for viral load. The factors like deterioration of sample, low viral load, false positive ELISA results may account for the same.