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Acute hepatitis B in blood donors over a 5‐year period in E ngland and N orth W ales: who is getting infected?
Author(s) -
Rosenberg Gillian K.,
Lattimore Sam,
Brailsford Susan R.,
Hewitt Patricia E.,
Tettmar Kate I.,
Kitchen Alan D.,
Ijaz Samreen,
Tedder Richard S.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
transfusion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.045
H-Index - 132
eISSN - 1537-2995
pISSN - 0041-1132
DOI - 10.1111/trf.12497
Subject(s) - period (music) , hepatitis b , medicine , virology , acoustics , physics
Background Hepatitis B virus ( HBV ) remains the infection most frequently recognized by donation testing in blood donors. It is usually a persistent infection and mostly reflects the country of origin of the donor or the donor's family. There are, however, a minority of acute infections and this study undertook their phylogenetic analysis to determine the likely source of infection. Study Design and Methods Plasma samples from 11 donors donating between J uly 2005 and J une 2010, whose test results revealed recent infection with hepatitis B , were available for further analysis. Plasma DNA was extracted, amplified, sequenced, and analyzed phylogenetically. Donor and virus characteristics were compared with the overall demography of all hepatitis B –infected donors attending over the same period. Results Three of the 11 individuals were first‐time donors. Nine were male, of whom eight were white B ritish. All had serum markers of very recent infection. Only two indicated known HBV exclusion risk factors at postdonation discussion not declared previously. G enotype A was present in seven, G enotype B in two, and G enotype C in two, contrasting with the pattern in persistently infected persons in the U nited K ingdom. A single A 2 strain was identified in six of the white B ritish male donors, suggesting epidemiologic linkage. Conclusion Phylogenetic analysis of HBV ‐infected donors performed in real time can potentially lead to identification of undeclared risk factors that donor health questionnaires may fail to identify.