Screening antenatal blood samples for anti-human immunodeficiency virus antibodies by a large-pool enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay system. Results of an 18-month investigation.
Blood samples submitted for routine antenatal testing from 104,683 pregnant women resident in the southern Transvaal were screened for antibodies to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) during an 18-month period--1 May 1987 - 31 October 1988. All blood samples were initially screened by a modified enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay whereby 48 samples are tested simultaneously in one microtitre well. Each positive 48-pool was subdivided and retested in a 12-pool system. The individual positively reacting sample, having been identified, was submitted to a reference laboratory for confirmatory testing which included Western blotting. In the cohort of 84,527 black women tested, the incidence of confirmed anti-HIV positivity was 1:2753 (0.036%) in the first 3 months of the study and increased to 1:461 (0.217%) in the last 3-month period.
Shapiro
M
M
South African Blood Transfusion Service, Johannesburg.
Crookes
R L
RL
O'Sullivan
E
E
D001741:Black or African American; D044383:Black People; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000208:ethnology; D008403:Mass Screening; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013019:South Africa; D044465:White People
D015483:HIV Antibodies