Abstract
Incidence of hepatitis C after blood transfusion at an operation was compared between before and after Japanese Red Cross Blood Centers applied HCV antibody test to donor blood. As subjects, 48 cases (9.5 units were transfused on average) before the introduction of the test and 75 cases (7.7 units on average) after it were investigated.
The ratio of the subjects seroconverted for HCV antibody decreased to a quarter after the introduction. Five cases (11%) seroconverted for C100-3 antibody before the introduction of the test, while only 2 cases (3%) seroconverted after introduction. With the introduction of screening, incidence of hepatitis decreased from 23% (7 cases of definite diagnosis and 5 cases of suspected diagnosis) to 6% (Including 3 cases of definite diagnosis and 2 cases of suspected diagnosis), that is about a quarter of the pre-screening level. These showed that the introduction of HCV antibody test was effective to decrease the incidence transfusion-associated of hepatitis. However, in spite of the supply of HCV antibody negative blood, hepatitis C occurred in 6% of 75 transfusion cases.
