Infective, chronic carriers of Hepatitis C virus among blood donors with no history of clinical hepatitis

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Abstract
Summary. We investigated the infectivity of three hepatitis C virus antibody (anti‐HCV) positive blood donors with either hepatitis B core antibodies (anti‐HBc) (Nos 1 and 2) or raised alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (No. 3). The 57 recipients of blood products from these donors during the period 1971–1990 were identified and the living 23 were tested for anti‐HCV. Among these, 11 out of 14 (78%) recipients from Nos 1 and 2, and 1 out of 9 (11 %) recipients from No. 3 were anti‐HCV positive. The former donors had high titres of anti‐C 100‐3 and high rating scores in the HCV recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA). They were evidently infective, chronic carriers of HCV but had no clinical signs or medical history of hepatitis. The latter donor had low titres of anti‐C100‐3 and a low RIBA rating score. She had clinical signs of chronic hepatitis and persistently elevated ALT, but only one of her recipients was anti‐HCV positive.