Usefulness of nucleic acid testing to reduce risk of hepatitis B virus transfusion-transmitted infection in Argentina: high rate of recent infections.

NAT contributed significantly to the reduction of the potential risk of HBV transmission with a frequency of one in 56,072, detecting three in 168,215 donors without serologic evidence of infection. NAT also detected three in 168,215 OBIs. The finding of high frequency of recent infections (1/33,643), unexpected for this country, highlights the need of promoting unified effective regulations that enforce the use of NAT in all blood banks in Argentina and points out the importance of assessing the risk of HBV transmission in blood banks of other countries considered to be low-endemic.