Abstract

Elahe Tajbakhsh1*, Hassan Momtaz , Manouchehr Momeni and Sodabe Hamedi

Hepatitis B virus, a common cause of viral hepatitis, consumes a large portion of health resources in developing countries. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) prevalence has been decreased dramatically in Iran population during the last decade, and now it is classified as having low endemicity for hepatitis B infection. Improvement of the people’s awareness about HBV risk factors, national vaccination program since 1993 for all neonates, and vaccination of high risk groups could be the cause of this decrease. In this investigation, we announce the detection of HBV- DNA sequence from 90 HBsAg positive blood donors in shahrekord by nested PCR, using specific primers of the surface antigen region of the HBV genome. Of the 11472 volunteer blood donors admitted to Shahrekord blood transfusion organization center in Iran during 2007 - 2008, 90 specimens