INTRODUCTION: The goal of any transfusion service is to provide adequate and safe blood and blood products that meet the needs of patients. Transfusion-transmissible viral infections, such as hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), remain a major public health problem in developing countries. Nucleic acid testing (NAT) is a molecular technique for screening blood donations to reduce the risk of transfusion transmitted infections (TTIs) in the recipients, thus providing an additional layer of blood safety.
AIM OF THE WORK: To assess the importance of implementing NAT assay to detect donors during window period which are not detected with Enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA).
SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This cross sectional study was conducted at the Egyptian Abbassia regional Blood Transfusion center (ARBTC) at Abbassia, Cairo. Blood donation collected from 10000 voluntary donors from January 2016 to June 2016 and tested with both ID NAT and ELISA assays for HBV, HCV and HIV.
RESULTS: NAT testing has the potential to detect viral nucleic acids of HIV 1-2, HBV, and HCV earlier than current screening methods.
CONCLUSION: The implementation of NAT screening for three viruses has improved blood safety and reduced transfusion-transmitted infections.