[Prevention of post-transfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis by anti-HCV screening]

Since May 1990 a specific enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for NANBH has been developed by recombinant DNA technology which detects antibodies to a virus called hepatitis C virus (HCV). The anti-HCV EIA was manufactured by Ortho-Diagnostic Systems with recombinant antigens from Chiron Corp. based on extraction from high infectious titre chimpanzee plasma RNA after transcription into cDNA. We tested the anti-HCV prevalence of blood donors and hemodialysis patients. The anti-HCV prevalence with the first generation test was 0.52% (Ortho), 0.87% (Abbott) in blood donors and 4.16% in hemodialysis patients. The second generation anti-HCV test (Abbott) with improved sensitivity and specificity comprises 0.25% repeated anti-HCV positive blood donors and 8.2% anti-HCV positive hemodialysis patients.