Frequent presence of HBV in the sera of HBsAg‐negative, anti‐HBc‐positive blood donors

Abstract

The replication of HBV is ongoing in a substantial proportion of healthy blood donors who have anti-HBc. Blood from such donors may contain very low levels of HBV free of immune complex formation and should be excluded for transfusion. The fact that such blood donors apparently lacked liver disease suggests no pathogenicity of such "occult" HBV.