Infection with hepatitis C virus
BMJ 1994; 308 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.308.6932.856 (Published 26 March 1994) Cite this as: BMJ 1994;308:856
- Nicholas Hallam,
- John Kurtz,
- Angela Dike,
- David Parker
- Regional Virus Laboratory, City Hospital, Edinburgh EH10 5SB
- Virology Department, Public Health Laboratory, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU
- Oxford Regional Blood Transfusion Service, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU
- Murex Diagnostics, Dartford, Kent DA1 5LR.
New generation of assays should improve screening
Editor,--A recent editorial discussed screening for hepatitis C virus infection.1 During the first eight months of screening for hepatitis C virus in the Oxford region 83 177 units of blood (from 70 700 donors) were tested with the Ortho second generation enzyme linked immunoassay. These reactions were repeatedly positive in 358 (0.5% of all donors), and these were referred to the virology department for confirmation by the second generation recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA-2, Ortho) and Murex BCJ11 enzyme linked immunoassay (with non-structural 5 and core antigens). Thirty nine samples (0.05% of all donors) were confirmed to be positive, reacting …
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