ArticleBMC infectious diseases2026
Implications of occult hepatitis B infection for blood donor management: a five-year evaluation from Western Saudi Arabia.
Article in BMC infectious diseases, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundOccult hepatitis B infection (OBI), defined by detectable HBV DNA in the absence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), remains a diagnostic challenge and a potential source of transfusion-transmitted infection. In intermediate-endemic settings such as Saudi Arabia, serology-based screening alone may miss low-level viremia. This study evaluated the prevalence, serologic patterns, and demographic correlates of OBI among blood donors.
methodsWe performed a five-year retrospective analysis of 48,241 blood donors screened between November 2019 and November 2024 at a tertiary-care hospital in Jeddah. All donations were tested for HBsAg, anti-HBc, and HBV DNA using chemiluminescent immunoassays and nucleic acid testing (NAT). Anti-HBc positivity was defined as HBsAg-negative/anti-HBc–reactive. OBI was defined as HBsAg-negative with detectable HBV DNA, irrespective of anti-HBc status. Donor demographics were compared between OBI and non-OBI groups using chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests.
resultsMost donors (45,739; 94.8\%) were negative for all three HBV markers. NAT identified 92 donors (0.19\%) with OBI, including 91 classical cases (HBsAg-/anti-HBc+/HBV DNA+) and one seronegative OBI case (HBsAg-/anti-HBc-/HBV DNA+). OBI donors were predominantly male, reflecting the overall donor pool, but gender was not significantly associated with OBI. By contrast, age group and nationality differed significantly between OBI and non-OBI donors (p < 0.001 and p = 0.048, respectively), with OBI enriched among older and Saudi donors.
conclusionOBI is infrequent but consistently detectable among blood donors in Saudi Arabia. Combined anti-HBc screening and highly sensitive HBV NAT improve identification of silent carriers and should inform national donor -screening and -management policies to optimize transfusion safety.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.