Prevalence of hepatitis C virus antibodies in blood donors in Malaysia

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the chief aetiologic agent for the parenterally transmitted Non-A, Non-B (NANB) hepatitis. This preliminary study was done to determine the prevalence of anti-HCV in the blood donor population. Blood from 3,540 donors who donated blood to the Blood Services Centre, Hospital, Kuala Lumpur, from 25th August 1991 to 13th January 1992, was tested for anti-HCV using both the Ortho and Abbott 2nd Generation ELISA test kits. ELISA positive specimens were repeated twice but no confirmatory test was done. There were 53 out of 3,540 (1.49%) blood donors who were repeatedly reactive to anti-HCV by ELISA. We plan to do further tests to confirm the results, using RIBA-2 or Abbott Neutralising test. Twenty eight out of 1,713 (1.63%) Malays, 22 out of 1,373 (1.60%) Chinese and 2 out of 393 (0.50%) Indians had antibodies to HCV. There was no significant difference in prevalence in the different age groups. The majority of donors tested were males (3,511 out of 3,540) of which 53 (1.50%) were anti-HCV positive. Only 29 females were tested and all were negative. To determine infectivity of the anti-HCV positive cases we would like to introduce testing for RNA by polymerate chain reaction (PCR). Screening all donated blood for anti-HCV will decrease, but not totally eliminate, post-transfusion hepatitis.