Post-Transfusion Hepatitis C Virus Infection

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Abstract
The report by Donahue et al. (Aug. 6 issue)1 documented the dramatic decrease in the risk of transmitting hepatitis C virus (HCV) through blood transfusion as a result of sequential improvements in blood-donor testing over the past five years. The authors' data included measurements of the risk of HCV from blood screened by tests for surrogate markers of non-A, non-B hepatitis (antibody to the hepatitis B core antigen [anti-HBc] and elevated levels of alanine aminotransferase) and by a first-generation enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for antibodies to HCV (anti-HCV). The authors stated that the recent implementation of a second-generation anti-HCV EIA licensed by the Food and Drug Administration, which uses multiple HCV antigens, for routine blood-donor testing should result in a further decrease in transfusion-transmitted HCV.