Screening Blood Donors for High Titre Antibody to Herpes Varicella‐Zoster

Abstract

As a method of increasing supplies of varicella-zoster immunoglobulin, semi-automated 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 greater than or equal to 1 in 64 and generally these levels declined rapidly. In contrast, although only 1.1% of donors in random screening had antibody titres greater than or equal to 1 in 64, these levels usually remained high during repeated donation, enabling the production of pools entirely composed of high titre plasma packs.

Application of immune adherence hemagglutination test in the screening of blood donors carrying a high titer antibody to varicella-zoster virus.

“…The source of VZVIG or VZVIP, however, is limited, because they have been obtained from the blood of convalescents from herpes zoster infection. Hejjas et al (1980) reported that 1% of blood donors had a high titer of antibody to VZV (higher than 64 units) by complement fixation (CF) test. …”