Transfus Apher Sci
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In order to further improve blood safety, mini-pool (MP) nucleic acid testing (NAT) was implemented to screen samples negative for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), anti-hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV), anti-human immunodeficiency virus (anti-HIV), syphilis (anti-Treponemal antibody) and with normal ALT. ⋯ MP NAT identified two HBsAg negative donors with presumed occult infection but no HIV or HCV seronegative/NAT positive (yield) donors. The HBV yield rate of 1 in 20,650 (95%CI - 1 in 5663 to 1 in 75,303) is comparatively high, exceeds the predicted rate based on previous modeling for the population and demonstrates the incremental blood safety value of NAT in countries where HBV is highly epidemic. The low viral load of the two yield samples underscores the importance of optimizing the sensitivity of the HBV NAT assay selected for screening.