Prevalence of anti HBC antibodies in blood donors from different centers in Lebanon

Abstract

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major cause of the liver disease that could lead to acute and chronic inflammation of the liver. In this study we collected anti HBC antibodies (anti hepatitis B core) results done as screening of blood donors from three hospital centers in Lebanon between Jan.2016to Jan.2019. The aim of this study is to collect epidemiological data on the prevalence of positive anti HBC antibodies in blood donors of different nationalities. Method: Blood donation records from the three hospitals were collected from Jan. 2016 till Jan. 2019 and they included 16000 volunteers for blood donation and all these donors were tested for anti HBC antibodies. Results: The total number of donors was 16000, 1224 volunteers (7.65%) had positive anti HBC test. The prevalence of anti HBC antibodies was higher in Syrian population with a prevalence of 12.9% as compared to the Lebanese donors with prevalence of 6.6%. Age was found to have a statistically significant relationship with the prevalence of hepatitis B. blood group was found not to have a statistically significant relationship with hepatitis B. Conclusion: Our study stressed the immediate need for implementing anti HBC testing, besides the routine screening for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBs Ag), to avoid the devastating undesirable effect of transfusion transmitted HBV during the window period and to highlight the evidence to make more educational events to further decrease the prevalence of the hepatitis B mainly in Syrian population. More studies should be done in Lebanon to have a better evidence of the importance of HBC antibodies to prevent infection through blood transfusion.