The History of the Anti-Hepatitis B Core Antibody Test

The use of a test that doesn't necessarily by itself tell you that much has been used before. During HIV, there were tests that they found like hepatitis B core antibody that could be used as a surrogate to help maybe identify units that may have had a higher risk of potential HIV. The next disease that was reported and caused a significant morbidity in transfusion recipients was transfusion associated hepatitis. In the early mid 70s, we moved our blood donor pool to a complete volunteer system which decreased the risk for hepatitis but not completely.