Reduction of the risk of transfusion‐transmitted viral infection by nucleic acid amplification testing in the Western Cape of South Africa: a 5‐year review

Abstract

ID-NAT in the Western Cape Province of South Africa has contributed significantly to enhancing blood safety, particularly for HBV transmission risk and to a lesser extent for HIV. Anti-HBc testing of NAT nonrepeat reactive donations seems useful in identifying a subgroup of donors with OBI who may be at risk of transmitting HBV.

Evaluation of an individual‐donation nucleic acid amplification testing algorithm for detecting hepatitis B virus infection in Chinese blood donors

“…To overcome these limitations many laboratories abandoned the Ultrio ID‐NAT and discriminatory test algorithm and first perform duplicate or triplicate repeat Ultrio repeat tests on the primary test tube, sometimes in combination with anti‐HBc testing. For confirmation of presence of low‐VL samples the frozen plasma unit or another dedicated test tube is often used for VL testing in combination with replicate Ultrio and discriminatory tests . Since in our study such a replicate test strategy in different test samples of the same donation has not been followed the dHBV‐ and qPCR‐confirmed HBV NAT yield rate is probably an underestimation of the true interdiction rate by Ultrio ID‐NAT screening.…”

Can Hepatitis C Virus Antigen Testing Replace Ribonucleic Acid Polymearse Chain Reaction Analysis for Detecting Hepatitis C Virus? A Systematic Review

“…The high proportion of HCV antibody-positive, RNA-negative patients means that antibody screening tests alone will not be enough to deliver high-quality care in resource-limited settings, both in terms of over investigation and treatment of patients and screening of blood products [21]. For example, studies in South Africa have illustrated a FP rate of 71% amongst discarded blood donations [22]. …”

“…Currently, Architect’s assay can be performed on laboratory-based platforms, such as the i2000SR Analyzer [23]. These may be logistically difficult to implement in LMIC due to unreliable water and electricity supplies and nonadherence to storage protocols [22]. Point-of-care tests may combat this issue.…”

Head‐to‐head comparison of two transcription‐mediated amplification assay versions for detection of hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and human immunodeficiency virus Type 1 in blood donors

“…This compares favorably to the overall specificity of 99.42% for repeat‐reactive results for the serologic markers. In some countries Ultrio Plus non–repeat‐reactive donations are released for transfusion, and in others such donations are further tested for anti‐HBc to identify potentially infectious donors with OBI …”