| Discretionary | a) If:
- it is at least 3 months after a sexual partner recovered from hepatitis B, and
- it is at least 4 months after a household contact recovered from hepatitis B, and
- a test for Anti-HBc will be performed,
accept for donation or take samples for testing, as directed by local procedures.
b) If the donor has been previously tested by the Blood Transfusion Service, and no new risk is disclosed, accept.
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| Post-session review of results | a) If the donor is negative for all hepatitis B markers, including anti-HBC, the donor can be accepted. Additional hepatitis B testing is not required for future donations unless the donor discloses a new risk.
b) If any of HBsAg, anti-HBc or HBV DNA are positive, refer to Section 1: Active or recovered hepatitis B infection.
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| Additional Information | The risk of acquiring hepatitis B infection from someone who has recovered from hepatitis B is very low. Testing for anti-HBc will rule out the possibility that the donor picked up HBV at an earlier stage when their sexual or household contact may have been infectious.
If the sexual or household contact has no history of hepatitis B but has been told they are anti-HBc positive, indicating previous infection only, it is likely that several months have elapsed since the contact cleared the virus from their circulation. The donor can be accepted for donation if anti-HBc testing will be undertaken on the donation, as long as their contact has not had an unexplained illness consistent with hepatitis B in the previous 3 months (sexual partner) or 4 months (household contact). There is no requirement to test the sexual partner or household contact.
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