Hepatitis B surface antigen in urine of renal transplant recipients

Persons exposed to HBsAg seropositive patients or their secretions are well known to be at increased risk of developing hepatitis B; however, the public health risks posed by transplant patients with potentially infective urine have been ignored. The infectivity of HBsAg-positive urine can be argued by analogy, as HBsAg-positive saliva has been shown to be infectious in animals. The authors believe that finding HBsAg in a large fraction of single urine samples from chronic serum HBsAg carriers after transplantation and nephrectomy has important public health implications.