LOW INCIDENCE OF POST-TRANSFUSION HEPATITIS BY SCREENING FOR ANTI-HEPATITIS C VIRUS ANTIBODY

To see whether the introduction of screening for hepatitis C virus (HCV) would be worthwhile, the incidence of post-transfusion non-A, non-B hepatitis (PT-NANBH) was assessed among patients receiving blood during operation at Fukushima Medical College Hospital. 230 patients before screening and 108 after screening, who received blood from an average of 6.7 donors and 5.3 donors, respectively, were followed up and evaluated. Remarkable reduction of the incidence of confirmed cases of PT-NANBH was observed. 20 (8.7%) of the patients before screening showed biochemical evidence of PT-NANBH, whereas only 3 (2.8%) cases after screening did. In contrast to confirmed cases, there was a little reduction rate of suspected PT-NANBH by the screening, 16.1% before and 12.0% after screening, respectively. These results suggest that mass-screening for anti-HCV is effective but still not perfect in reducing the PT-NANBH. Moreover, irradiating the blood positive for anti-HCV had no protective effect in the incidence of PT-NANBH in recipients.