The Medical Journal of Basrah University

Abstract

The Objectives: safety of blood products is one of the major issues in the area of transfusion medicine. In previous
study we found that hepatitis B virus was epidemic in some of Basrah medical institutions to assess the prevalence of
anti-HBc and anti-HBs antibodies in serum samples of healthy blood donors negative for both HBsAg and anti-HCV
in the Central Blood Bank, Basrah-Iraq.
Results: 204 serum samples negative for both HBsAg and anti-HCV collected from healthy blood donors were
tested for the presence of HBsAg, anti-HBs, HBeAg, anti-HBe and anti-HBc by using rapid chromatographic
immunoassay. Of the 204 samples tested, 13 (6.37%) of the HBsAg negative blood samples were found to be
positive for anti-HBc. 3(1.47%) out of 13 anti-HBc positive were found positive for anti-HBs.
Conclusion: detection of anti-HBc and anti-HBs antibodies were more important than other markers in detection
of latent Hepatitis B virus infection.