Molecular Comparison of Screening Technique for Hepatitis B Virus Infection among Blood Donors in Ibadan, South West, Nigeria

Hepatitis B infection has been a great threat to transfusion medicine and public medicine, especially Nigeria where approximately 18 million Nigerians are chronic carriers. The blood donors in Ibadan are routinely screened with rapid technique or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), there is paucity of information on the use of Nested Polymerase Chain Reaction (Nested PCR) for the detection of Hepatitis B virus deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) for the screening of blood donors. This study was aimed at carrying out molecular comparison of the screening techniques for the detection of HBV infection among blood donors in Ibadan, South West, Nigeria.

Blood samples were collected from 150 potential blood donors at the blood bank, University College Hospital, Ibadan. Rapid immune-chromatographic technique and nested PCR using primer SF, 979 and MF specific for DNA polymerase genome was used to screen the serum of the blood donors. Processing and analysis of data were performed using IBM statistical package for social sciences (IBM SPSS version 21.0 computer software). Descriptive statistics were presented using chart and tables while statistical significance was taken as P<0.05

The Rapid Screening test showed that 16 (10.7%) of the blood donors were positive while 134 (89.3%) were negative. The molecular detection of the Hepatitis B virus-DNA using nested PCR showed that 7 (4.7%) of the blood donors were positive while 143 (95.3%) were negative. It was also observed that 5 (71.4%) out of the 16 donors (10.7%) captured by the rapid screening were also detected by the Nested PCR, while the remaining 2 (28.6%) detected by the PCR were negative with the Rapid Screening test. The age range of 30 to 39 years and 40 to 49 years had the higher rate of infection 42.9% respectively. Result of the effects of different risk factors generated with the aid of questionnaire reflected that multiple sex partner have the highest prevalence of 16.7% compared to other risk factors

In conclusion, the detection of HBV-DNA using nested PCR among blood donors that was positive in Ibadan South West, Nigeria has public health implication for prevention of Hepatitis B virus and this confirms the practice of improper screening of blood before transfusion. Nested PCR techniques helps in early detection of hepatitis B virus DNA among blood donors, due to its high specificity and sensitivity than Rapid technique hence it serves as a confirmatory technique.