Screening of serologically negative plasma pools for hepatitis C virus by nucleic acid amplification testing in Croatia, 2001-2003.
A residual risk of HCV infection by different blood products exists due to blood donations collected during the serological window period in the early stages of infection. The aim of this study is nucleic acid amplification technique (NAT)-based screening of the anti-HCV negative plasma pools obtained from various Croatian transfusion centres between 2001 and 2003 for HCV RNA. During this period 2647 anti-HCV negative plasma pools were tested by NAT and 12 (0.45%) HCV RNA positive pools were detected. In comparison to the results of our previous study [Forcić D, Zgorelec R, Branović K, Kosutić-Gulija T, Santak M, Mazuran R. Incidence of hepatitis C virus RNA in anti-HCV negative plasma pools in Croatia. Transfus Apher Sci 2001;24:269-78], a remarkable decrease in the number of positive plasma pools (from 2.1% to 0.45%) was demonstrated.
Forcić
Dubravko
D
Molecular Biomedicine Unit, Department of Research and Development, Institute of Immunology Inc., Rockefellerova 10, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia. dforcic@imz.hr
Zgorelec
Renata
R
Kosutić-Gulija
Tanja
T
Ivancić
Jelena
J
Baricević
Marijana
M
Lupret
Ljerka
L
Mazuran
Renata
R
D001782:Blood Donors; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D017523:Croatia; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods
D036022:Capsid Proteins; D018937:Hepatitis C Antibodies; D012367:RNA, Viral