Blood donor screening for Hepatitis B and C in Benghazi: additional tests are needed

ABSTRACT

Traditionally prevention of transfusion-transmitted viral infections relies on screening blood donors using enzyme immunoassays [ElA]. To further enhance blood safety some countries employ anti-HBc testing to detect HBsAg negative donors. Improving safety is further complemented by genome screening using nucleic acid amplified technology [NAT]. to determine whether there is a need to reform our strategy for blood donor screening The central laboratory at Al-Fateh Children Hospital and the laboratory of the Center of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. Blood donations previously collected and screened in the central blood bank were re-tested in our laboratories by EIA for HIV, HCV, and HBsAg. In addition samples from the same units were tested for anti-HBc using EIA and for HCV using NAT. A total of 100 blood donations were tested. All were negative for HBsAg, HIV, and HCV using EIA techniques. Ten [10%] units were anti-HBc reactive and six [6%] units were HCV-NAT reactive. Our results show that although all donations pass the traditional screening tests, using additional tests revealed that ten percent of them was potentially infectious for hepatitis B and another six percent was potentially infectious for hepatitis C. These findings clearly call for a genuine need to reform our policy for blood donor screening. Additional tests, namely the anti-HBc and nucleic acid amplification tests, need to be urgently introduced