PREVALENCE OF HIV, HCV, HBV INFECTION IN BLOOD DONORS DETECTED BY NUCLEIC ACID TESTING: AN INDIAN EXPERIENCE

Tulika Chandra MD*. Devisha Agarwal MBBS Scholar. and S.Nishat Fatima Rizvi PhD Scholar

ABSTRACT

Nucleic acid testing (NAT) is able to detect viruses during the ‘window period’ or the time between donor exposure to the virus and the appearance of antibodies. This allows for earlier detection of infection and further decreases the possibility of transmission via transfusion. Out of the 35,722 samples, 700 (1.95%) were reactive by ELISA. Discriminent assays found 40 (0.11%) to be reactive for HIV, 60 (0.16%) to be reactive for HCV and 600 (1.67%) forHBV. Apart from these reactive samples NAT was carried out on the non-reactive samples.Amongst them total of 158 (0.44%) were reactive for NAT. On discriminatory assays 2(0.005%) samples were reactive for HIV-1 and 2 also for HIV -2, 46 (0.12%) samples were reactive for HCV and 108 (0.30%) for HBV.NAT could detect HIV, HBV and HCV cases in blood donor samples that were undetected by serological tests. Third generation ELISA is the mandatory test in India. Our study confirms the utility of NAT and emphasizes the presence of HIV-2 in Indian donors. Study on such a huge population sample further questions the safety of blood supply by regular screening method and stresses on the introduction of NAT as a mandatory test by regulatory authorities.

Keywords: NAT, ELISA, HIV, HCV, HBV.