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 …