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  • Title: Screening of blood donors for antibody to human immunodeficiency virus type 1.
    Author: Acquaye JK.
    Journal: West Afr J Med; 1993; 12(2):93-5. PubMed ID: 8398939.
    Abstract:
    29,575 blood donors of whom about 20% were voluntary were screened for HIV 1. During the three years period 1988 to 1990 four different tests kits were used. Three were ELISA methods and one an agglutination method. Comparison of the monthly seropositivity for each year showed variations of 0.9 to 4.4% for the first year, 1.4 to 10% for the second year and 0.2 to 6.9% for the third year. The differences in the standard errors were found to be significant. These wide differences are suggested to be due to many factors including the use of different screening kits, many first time donors and inability to perform repeat tests on positive samples. Between January 1988 and December 1990, the National Blood Transfusion Service in Ghana tested the blood of 29,575 blood donors for HIV-1 antibodies to examine the significance in variations in monthly seropositivity. More than 90% of the blood donors were first-time donors. 20% were voluntary donors and the remaining donors were family donors. Over the study period, the Service used 4 different test kits: Wellcome ELISA (January 1988-November 1989), hemagglutination method ( December 1989-February 1990), Wellcome recombinant ELISA (February-October 1990), Elavia ELISA (November-December 1990). It screened 9739, 9279, and 10,557 blood donors in 1988, 1989, and 1990, respectively. The monthly HIV-1 seropositivity rates were 0.9-4.4%, 1.4-10.1%, and 0.2-6.9% in 1988, 1989, and 1990, respectively. When the Service used just Wellcome recombinant ELISA (April-October 1990), the range was only 0.2-2%. Differences in the standard errors between the HIV-1 seropositivity rate for that month and that of the rest of the year were significant, especially in the 7-month period in which the Service used just the recombinant ELISA method. Contributing factors to the wide deviations included changes in testing kits, inability to repeat tests on all positive samples, and many first-time donors.
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