Background: Infection with hepatitis viruses constitutes a public health problem in Burkina Faso.
Several previous studies have estimated the prevalence of viral hepatitis A, B and C. This study aimed
to study the prevalence of hepatitis delta infection in apparent healthy blood donors positive for the
antigen of hepatitis B virus.
Methods: This study involved first time blood donors, positive for HBV surface antigen (HBsAg). The
presence of HBV and HDV was confirmed using real time PCR duplex. The SPSS software was used for
statistical analyzes of the obtained results.
Results: Two hundred HBsAg positive blood donors were enrolled in this study. The sociodemographic data showed 79% of men from all religious and ethnic denominations. RT-PCR analysis
confirmed the presence of HBV DNA in 195/200 (97.5%) positive blood donors. Only 0.5% (1/200) of HBV
positive person presented a case of co-infection with HDV.
Conclusion: Our study shows that 97.5% of HBsAg positive person detected by the ARCHITECT i 1000
SRTM were positive by PCR. The obtained results showed that the distribution of HDV in blood donors
positive for the hepatitis B antigen is low (0.5%).

HBV, HDV, Real Time PCR, Blood donors, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.