Risk factors associated with hepatitis B exposure and the reliability of five rapid kits commonly used for screening blood donors in Ghana

摘要

BackgroundHepatitis B virus infection (HBV) is one of the most widespread, chronic viral infections in sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of South America. Therefore, efforts are being made to implement strategies aimed at reducing the incidence of hepatitis B viral infections. One route of HBV transmission is through unsafe blood transfusion, which could occur from the use of less sensitive laboratory diagnostic kits. Information on the sensitivity and specificity of these kits is however limited in many developing countries. This study was therefore performed to describe the prevalence of HBV infections and also to evaluate the performance of five rapid immunochromatographic kits commonly used in Ghana.