Impact of blood screening strategies for Hepatitis C virus on blood safety / 中国输血杂志

ABSTRACT

【Objective】 To establish a reasonable and effective blood screening strategy for Hepatitis C virus (HCV), so as to reduce the risk of blood transfusion transmission, ensure blood safety and improve the quality of blood screening. 【Methods】 In order to evaluate HCV screening strategies comprehensively, the unqualified blood donations due to anti-HCV alone positivity in Dalian from 2017 to 2021 was tracked, with combined detection methods of electro-chemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA) and HCV-RNA nucleic acid test (NAT). 【Results】 A total of 851 (0.20%) unqualified donations due to anti-HCV alone positivity were screened from 2017 to 2021, with a decreasing trend in both numbers and rate. Among them, the unqualified rate of samples with anti-HCV reactivity in both dural-ELISA-reagent and NAT decreased significantly (P<0.05). A total of 117(0.028%) samples were anti-HCV reactive in dural-ELISA-reagent but nonreactive in NAT; 664 reactive in one-ELISA-reagent, with 70(10.54%) in Reagent Ⅰ and 594(89.46%) in Reagent Ⅱ; 122 (35.88%) out of 340 donations were reactive in ECLIA. Among the 28 participants in the follow-up test, 15 still were reactive in ELISA and 2 reactive in ECLIA. 【Conclusion】 Although the unqualified rate of HCV is decreasing, serological screening of anti-HCV is still an important method for ensuring blood safety, and its complementarity with HCV-RNA NAT should be evaluated. As a new serological assay, ECLIA has high sensitivity and specificity. Miss detection may occur if only one ELISA reagent is adopted for anti-HCV detection. Appropriate ELISA and NAT system for HCV screening should be reasonably chosen, and HCV screening strategy should be developed and adjusted according to the local conditions.