A Pilot Study to Assess Transfusion Transmission of Hepatitis C Virus
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SHORT COMMUNICATION
A Pilot Study to Assess Transfusion Transmission of Hepatitis C Virus Ahmed El-Nawawy1 • Shams Abdel-Fattah Arafa2 • Adham Ahmed Badeib1 Manal A.-M. Antonios1
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Received: 20 July 2019 / Accepted: 17 February 2020 Ó Indian Society of Hematology and Blood Transfusion 2020
Abstract Alexandria University blood bank adopted double screening tests: a fully automated chemiluminescence immunoassay followed by nucleic acid testing. The aim of the study was to assess the efficiency of dual check of HCV in preventing transfusion related infection among patients admitted to PICU. A prospective cohort study was carried on patients admitted to PICU during 6 months. The included patients performed HCV RNA detection on admission by conventional reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique. Only negative cases were recruited, then patients receiving blood or its product were checked after 4 weeks from discharge by RTPCR for HCV RNA. A total of 33 patients received 108 transfusions: 9 patients of them deceased during PICU stay and the remaining 24 patients were all found to be negative for HCV. The dual screening of HCV should be implemented in all blood banks of Egypt especially for critically ill pediatric patients. Keywords Hepatitis C virus Transfusion transmision Safe blood HCV testing & Manal A.-M. Antonios [email protected]
Introduction Egypt has the highest prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in the world, estimated nationally at 14.7% [1]. Many individuals living with HCV are unaware of their infectious status [2]. Therefore, receipt of HCV-infected blood transfusions remains an important source of infection [3]. In general, the main screening assay for detecting antiHCV is the enzyme immunoassay (EIA). However, one of the major risk factor causing HCV-transfusion transmission is the so-called ‘‘window period’’ during which the antibody tests are unable to identify subjects where the virus is present in plasma in large quantities while antibodies have not yet been produced [4]. Therefore, in the acute stage, anti-HCV reactivity may remain undetectable for several months even by the most sensitive assays [5]. In Egypt, HCV screening of donor blood through national protocols mandates only HCV antibodies detection by EIA [6]. While, Alexandria University blood bank adopted double screening tests: a fully automated chemiluminescence immunoassay followed by Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT). The aim of the present study was to assess the efficiency of this dual check of HCV in preventing transfusion related infection among patients admitted to Alexandria Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
Ahmed El-Nawawy [email protected] Shams Abdel-Fattah Arafa [email protected]
Subjects and Methods
Adham Ahmed Badeib [email protected]
A prospective cohort study was designed after obtaining an informed consent from caregivers of patients admitted to PICU during 6 months period starting from first of October 2017. All admitted cases to the PICU were screened and those having past
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