Pooling of sera for human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) screening in a time of increasing health care expenditure and limited resources

Abstract

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Specificity of HTLV screening tests and its impact on health care program costs: The perspective of antenatal screening in Brazil

“…However, the use of pooled sera for HTLV-1/2 screening is an acceptable strategy to reduce cost 8 , 9 and was part of the screening protocol for blood donors in the United Kingdom between 2002 and 2013 10 . A recent study confirmed that the use of pooled sera for HTLV-1 screening did not affect the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of ELISA screening and could reduce cost up to 73.6% when applied to samples of at-risk populations in Brazil 11 . The introduction of pooling would also require considerable changes to laboratory processes, but these might be considered if they are applicable to other screening tests.…”

Laboratory diagnosis of human T-lymphotropic virus in Brazil: assays, flowcharts, challenges, and perspectives

“…Moreover, screening tests with low specificity (false positives) generate unnecessary costs for subsequent complementary tests and should be avoided 7 , 8 . To increase specificity and decrease screening costs, especially in populations and regions with a low prevalence of HTLV-1/2, serum pooling strategies were investigated at the Adolfo Lutz Institute of São Paulo 9 . The data indicated that serum pooling can reduce screening costs for SUS by more than 70%.…”