ArticleAfrican health sciences2016
Molecular and serological detection of occult hepatitis B virus among healthy hepatitis B surface antigen-negative blood donors in Malaysia.
Article in African health sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Global prevalence of occult hepatitis B virus infection in HBcAb-positive individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2025Pooled it
- Characteristics of occult hepatitis B infection among pregnant women in the Center Region of Cameroon: rationale for universal administration of hepatitis B birth dose vaccine.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Prevalence of occult hepatitis B infection and hepatitis B genotype characterization among blood donors in Jember Regency, East Java, Indonesia.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Low Risk of Occult Hepatitis B Infection among Vietnamese Blood Donors.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Molecular characteristics of the full-length genome of occult hepatitis B virus from blood donors in China.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Risk factors of hepatitis B virus surface antigen carriage and serological profile of HBsAg carriers in Lomé Togo, 2016.BMC public health · 2019Article
- Infections interplay with non-communicable diseases.African health sciences · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOccult hepatitis B infections are becoming a major global threat, but the available data on its prevalence in various parts of the world are often divergent.
objectiveThis study aimed to detect occult hepatitis B virus in hepatitis B surface antigen-negative serum using anti-HBc as a marker of previous infection. PATIENT AND
methodsA total of 1000 randomly selected hepatitis B surface antigen-negative sera from blood donors were tested for hepatitis B core antibody and hepatitis B surface antibody using an ELISA and nested polymerase chain reaction was done using primers specific to the surface gene (S-gene).
resultsOf the 1000 samples 55 (5.5%) were found to be reactive, of which 87.3% (48/55) were positive for hepatitis B surface antibody, indicating immunity as a result of previous infection however, that does not exclude active infection with escaped mutant HBV. Nested PCR results showed the presence of hepatitis B viral DNA in all the 55 samples that were positive for core protein, which is in agreement with the hepatitis B surface antibody result.
conclusionThis study reveals the 5.5% prevalence of occult hepatitis B among Malaysian blood donors as well as the reliability of using hepatitis B core antibody in screening for occult hepatitis B infection in low endemic, low socioeconomic settings.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.