Author’s Reply; Nucleic Acid Testing for the Detection of HBV DNA

First, we agree with seto et al. regarding the impacts of the sensitivity of the detection methods of obi (occult hepatitis b infection) prevalence but disagree regarding their idea on the lack of usefulness of anti-hbc screens. they have referred to seo et al., who reported that the prevalence of anti-hbc positivity in korea was 13.5%, whereas the prevalence of obi was 0.016% (1). anti-hbc is the first antibody that is produced against hbv and is the most stable antibody (2); hence, the presence of the antibody in individuals demonstrates introduction of hbv to the immune system via several mechanisms, including transfusion (3, 4). therefore, it seems that the rate of obi among anti-hbc-positive persons is more than the anti-hbc-negative blood donors (5).