Screening and confirmation of anti-HCV antibodies in Tunisian blood donors

Antibodies to Hepatitis C virus (HCV) were tested in 43000 Tunisian blood donors by using enzyme immuno-assay. Our results show that 0.7% (304/43000) were anti-HVC positive. Of these 304.78 were confirmed anti-HCV positive (0.18%) by immuno-blot, and 99 displayed an indeterminate profile. Different immune responses were observed: In donors with positive serologic pattern (78/304), 25.6% response towards whole antigens (C + NS3 + NS4 + NS5) was frequently observed (44/78) 56.4%. Reactivity to 2 antigens was observed in 28.2% (22/78) and with 3 antigens in only 15.4% (12/78), with systematic reactivity to core. In donors with indeterminate serologic pattern (99/304) 32.5%, reactivity to non-structural antigen NS5 was the most frequently observed (54/99) 54.5%, reactivity to non-structural NS3 antigen was noted in 27.3% (27/99) and to core antigen in 18.2% (18/99). No donors with isolated reactivity to NS4 were observed in our series.