As a method of increasing supplies of varicella-zoster immunoglobulin, semiautomated
screening of blood donors for high titre complement-fixing antibody was initiated.
This was compared with the previously used method of donor selection based on a history
of varicella or zoster in the past 6 months. About one-third of the ‘history’ donors had titres
of≥1 in 64 and generally these levels declined rapidly. In contrast, although only 1.1% of
donors in random screening had antibody titres ≥1 in 64, these levels usually remained high
during repeated donations, enabling the production of pools entirely composed of high titre
plasma packs.
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