LOW INCIDENCE OF NON-A, NON-B POSTTRANSFUSION HEPATITIS IN LONDON CONFIRMED BY HEPATITIS-C VIRUS SEROLOGY

To see whether the introduction of screening tests for post-transfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANBH) in the UK would be worth while, the incidence of such hepatitis was assessed among patients receiving blood during operations at five hospitals served by the North London Blood Transfusion Centre. 387 patients, who each received blood or blood components from an average of 3 donors were followed up prospectively and blood samples were taken every 2 weeks for 3 months and then each month for a further 3 months. 229 patients also provided a sample at 12 months. All available patient and donor samples were tested for alanine aminotransferase concentrations and for antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) by ELISA. Repeatedly anti-HCV positive samples were submitted to supplementary HCV assays. 1 of the 387 patients showed biochemical evidence of acute post-transfusion NANBH after exclusion of non-viral causes. Anti-HCV developed in this patient and the seroconversion was confirmed by recombinant immunoblot assay and polymerase chain reaction. Serum from 1 of the 8 donors whose blood he received was positive for anti-HCV by all three methods. In another patient HCV seroconversion was shown by ELISA but alanine aminotransferase concentrations remained normal throughout follow-up. His samples and those of his 2 donors were negative for HCV by the polymerase chain reaction. A third patient showed rises in alanine aminotransferase compatible with post-transfusion NANBH, but serology and polymerase chain reaction assays for HCV were negative for her samples and those of her donors. Anti-HCV reactivity likely to be false positive (negative by both confirmatory tests and no adverse effects in recipients) was seen in 6 of 1283 donors. This study, despite its being carried out in the part of the UK with the highest frequency of infectious markers in blood donations, has shown a very low incidence of post-transfusion NANBH.