Introduction: Identification of hepatitis B virus carriers in blood donors is imperative in order to avoid transmission of the disease via blood transfusion.
Objective: To determine if blood donors with positive results for serological markers HBsAg and anti-HBc were hepatitis B virus DNA carriers.
Methods: 12,745 samples were collected from six Ecuadorian blood banks and analyzed for HBsAg, anti-HBc and anti-HBs infectious markers by automated ELISA.