Ways of post-transfusion hepatitis prevention

Methods of post-transfusion hepatitis (PTH) prevention including voluntary donorship, search for the carriers of specific HBV markers, for donors having impaired liver function tests, i. e. AST screening, ALT quantitation, and AST + bilirubin screening are discussed on the basis of twenty years' development of their effect on regional PTH incidence. A combination of AST + bilirubin screening has been found to prevent 66% of PTH incidence in the year 1984 and on average 49% during the five years through 1988, disqualifying only 1-3% of donors, and avoiding wastage of blood through its performance before blood unit collection. A comparison with the data of Hollinger et al. about ALT quantitation suggests that the sources of PTH removed by either of the two preventive methods are different and that an improved effect could be therefore obtained by their combination.