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  • Title: CDC finds Kenya's blood stocks unsafe.
    Journal: AIDS Anal Afr; 1995 Aug; 5(4):2. PubMed ID: 12289853.
    Abstract:
    During April-September 1994, a team from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a study of the blood banks of five public hospitals in western Kenya (New Nyanza, Kisumul, Homa Bay, Siaya Hospital, and Kenyatta National). They analyzed 1835 blood samples and found that 114 (6%) tested HIV positive. The Kenyan laboratories had not detected 86 of these samples as HIV positive. 28 of these undetected HIV-positive blood samples (25%) had been transfused to patients. The CDC team, like the Kenyan labs, used the ELISA technique but the CDC team used more advanced test methods to confirm the results. Kenya's Health Minister and other government officials deny that contaminated blood poses a major problem in Kenya. A CDC official reports that Kenya is not the only African country with contaminated blood. About 10% of the donated blood is contaminated with HIV, hepatitis B, and other contaminants. Lack of financial resources lies at the root of the problem. Health authorities cannot buy adequate supplies of testing equipment. Poor storage facilities cause the deterioration of peripheral equipment, which creates conditions for false HIV test results. The CDC official claims that Kenya has an unusually high number of unnecessary blood transfusions, which reduce the blood supply and put recipients of the blood transfusion at risk of HIV infection. In one Kenyan hospital, 44 of 121 blood donations were not screened at all. 10 (23%) contained HIV. An improved system for procurement and distribution of test kits, adherence by blood bank staff to universal screening techniques, and improved laboratory techniques would address the problem.
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