Screening blood donors for high titre antibody to herpes varicella-zoster.
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.
D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D001782:Blood Donors; D014645:Herpesvirus 3, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening
D000914:Antibodies, Viral