When and why is red blood cell genotyping applicable in transfusion medicine: a systematic review of the literature.

This review aims to provide a better understanding of when and why red blood cell (RBC) genotyping is applicable in transfusion medicine. Articles published within the last 8 years in peer-reviewed journals were reviewed in a systematic manner. RBC genotyping has many applications in transfusion medicine including predicting a patient's antigen profile when serologic methods cannot be used, such as in a recently transfused patient, in the presence of autoantibody, or when serologic reagents are not available. RBC genotyping is used in prenatal care to determine zygosity and guide the administration of Rh immune globulin in pregnant women to prevent hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn. In donor testing, RBC genotyping is used for resolving ABO/D discrepancies for better donor retention or for identifying donors negative for high-prevalence antigens to increase blood availability and compatibility for patients requiring rare blood. RBC genotyping is helpful to immunohematology reference laboratory staff performing complex antibody workups and is recommended for determining the antigen profiles of patients and prospective donors for accurate matching for C, E, and K in multiply transfused patients. Such testing is also used to determine patients or donors with variant alleles in the Rh blood group system. Information from this testing aides in complex antibody identification as well as sourcing rare allele-matched RBC units. While RBC genotyping is useful in transfusion medicine, there are limitations to its implementation in transfusion services, including test availability, turn-around time, and cost.

Gauging the laboratory responses to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Africa.

The rampaging effect of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Africa is huge and have impacted almost every area of life. Across African states, there exist variations in the laboratory measures adopted, and these heterogeneous approaches, in turn, determines the successes or otherwise recorded. In this study, we assessed the various forms of laboratory responses to the containment, risk analyses, structures and features of COVID-19 in high incidence African countries (Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, Algeria, Morocco, etc.) to aid better and efficient laboratory responses to the highly infectious diseases.