OCCURRENCE OF HEPATITIS B SURFACE ANTIGEN (HBs Ag) IN BLOOD DONORS AND PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM TRANSFUSION HEPATITIS

A survey of the stock of registered blood donors in Malmo revealed 0.07 per cent carriers of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) if tested with immunoelectroosmophoresis (IEOP). In the group of prospective donors, the IEOP technique detected HBsAg at a frequency of 0.5 per cent, while a more sensitive solid-phase radioimmunoassay (RIA) detected a further 0.1 per cent. The RIA technique used in this investigation showed an incidence of false positives of 0.5 per cent. Most of the falsely positive sera probably contained antibodies against guinea pig globulin thus interfering with the test. The incidence of suspected transfusion hepatitis decreased after the screening for HBsAg among the blood donors was introduced. The justification of using RIA as screening method for HBs Ag is discussed.