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Molecular and serological detection of occult hepatitis B virus among healthy hepatitis B surface antigen-negative blood donors in Malaysia


Shuaibu A Hudu
Nabil S Harmal
Mohammed I Saeed
Ahmad S Alshrari
Yasmin A Malik
Mohd T Niazlin
Roshida Hassan
Zamberi Sekawi

Abstract

Background: Occult hepatitis B infections are becoming a major global threat, but the available data on its prevalence in various parts of the world are often divergent.
Objective: This study aimed to detect occult hepatitis B virus in hepatitis B surface antigen-negative serum using anti-HBc as a marker of previous infection.
Patient and methods: A total of 1000 randomly selected hepatitis B surface  antigen-negative sera from blood donors were tested for hepatitis B core antibody and hepatitis B surface antibody using an ELISA and nested polymerase chain reaction was done using primers specific to the surface gene (S-gene).
Results: Of the 1000 samples 55 (5.5%) were found to be reactive, of which 87.3% (48/55) were positive for hepatitis B surface antibody, indicating immunity as a result of previous infection however, that does not exclude active infection with escaped mutant HBV. Nested PCR results showed the presence of hepatitis B viral DNA in all the 55 samples that were positive for core protein, which is in agreement with the hepatitis B surface antibody result.
Conclusion: This study reveals the 5.5% prevalence of occult hepatitis B among  Malaysian blood donors as well as the reliability of using hepatitis B core antibody in screening for occult hepatitis B infection in low endemic, low socioeconomic  settings.


Keywords: Hepatitis B, surface antigen, core antibody, polymerase chain reaction, occult hepatitis B infection


Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 1729-0503
print ISSN: 1680-6905