Prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen in Kashmiri blood donors.

Eighty eight of 7900 healthy blood donors screened for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBs Ag) carrier state by reversed passive haemagglutination assay were found to be positive. The positivity was significantly more in rural donors (P less than 0.001) as compared to urban donors. False positive results are seen only with 1.13 per cent of the sera tested.