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


Citation

Hudu, Shuaibu Abdullahi and Mohammed Harmal, Nabil Saad and Saeed, Mohamed Ibrahim and Alshrari, Ahmed Subeh and Abdul Malik, Yasmin and Niazlin, Mohd Taib and Hassan, Roshida and Sekawi, Zamberi (2016) Molecular and serological detection of occult hepatitis B virus among healthy hepatitis B surface antigen-negative blood donors in Malaysia. African Health Sciences , 16 (13). pp. 677-683. ISSN 1680-6905; ESSN: 1729-0503

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.


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Additional Metadata

Item Type: Article
Divisions: Faculty of Medicine and Health Science
DOI Number: https://doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v16i3.6
Publisher: Medical School, Makerere University
Keywords: Hepatitis B; Core antibody; Occult hepatitis B infection; Polymerase chain reaction; Surface antigen
Depositing User: Nurul Ainie Mokhtar
Date Deposited: 10 Nov 2017 04:47
Last Modified: 10 Nov 2017 04:47
Altmetrics: http://www.altmetric.com/details.php?domain=psasir.upm.edu.my&doi=10.4314/ahs.v16i3.6
URI: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/53318
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