1. Affected Individual

Must not donate if:
1. Less than 6 months from recovery of symptoms,or

2. Less than 6 months since the donor was diagnosed with hepatitis A infection following laboratory infection, or

3. If the donor tested positive for Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) RNA at the time of donation.

1. If less than 6 months from infection, but fully recovered, documented HAV RNA negative and anti-HAV IgG positive after recovery, accept.

2. For tissues that will undergo processing that has been determined to inactivate HAV prior to transplantation, accept.

Travel

Hepatitis A is a viral infection of the liver, spread by the faecal-oral route and by sewage-contaminated food and water. It can also be spread sexually. There is no long-term infection with the virus but there are reports of transmission by transfusion and organ transplantation. However there have been no documented cases of transmission via tissue allografts. Infection may be symptom free but can be serious and occasionally fatal. The Blood Services do not routinely test tissue donors for this infection, however if the donor has also donated organs and/or pancreatic islets, testing at the time of donation may have been done.

The processing and decontamination protocols applied to certain types of tissue allograft may be sufficient to inactivate the Hepatitis A Virus. Tissue establishments should perform a documented risk assessment to determine which tissues and processes this applies to.

To add guidance for donors who test positive for HAV RNA at the date of donation, and to allow donation of tissues where the processing and decontamination protocols applied have been determined to inactivate Hepatitis A Virus.