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Background: The antigen Dia is common among Mongols (5-12%), but rare in Caucasians (< 1%)., Objective: The accidental discovery of Diego A (Dia) antibodies in a South American tourist and in an elderly German patient prompted us to investigate the frequency of Dia antigens in the German population., Design: 1,352 German random blood donors, all living in Berlin or in the areas around, were tested for the presence of the Dia antigen on their red blood cells. All donors were Caucasians., Results: Dia was found in 12 individuals (0.89%)., Conclusions: We think that Dia is a low-frequency antigen in the European population. The admixture of Mongol genes following wars or migration is only of low or no importance.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is responsible for the majority of cases of transfusion-related hepatitis. We performed a first-generation anti-HCV EIA in 665 repeat and 168 first-time blood donors from Berlin. 4.7 and 4.2%, respectively, showed at least one indeterminate or positive result. We further looked for HCV genome in the plasma of 20 donors with reactive anti-HCV-EIA doing a polymerase chain reaction (nested PCR). The control group consisted of 20 patients with chronic hepatitis C. The PCR was negative in all examined blood donors, but was positive in 17 of 20 controls. These findings raise the question, if a positive anti-HCV test correlates with infectiosity.