Lack of correlation between HBsAg and HBV DNA levels in blood donors who test positive for HBsAg and anti‐HBc: implications for future HBV screening policy

Abstract

HBV DNA levels in HBsAg-positive, anti-HBc-reactive blood donations can be extremely low. About 6 percent of donations would be negative by current minipool HBV NAT methods. About 3 percent of donations would remain undetected by sensitive single-donor NAT. These results indicate caution in any consideration of dropping HBsAg screening.