PURPOSE: In India, HIV-2 epidemic is alongside with HIV-1. Blood banks are introducing nucleic acid testing (NAT) for screening. The limitation of NAT systems is the inability to detect HIV-2. MATERIALS AND METHOD: An analysis of HIV screening of a blood bank at a tertiary care center from 1998 to 2007 was carried out. RESULTS: A total of 175026 donors were screened by serological assays and 789 were reactive for HIV antibody. Only 478 (61%) were confirmed positive by Western blot/immunoblot. There were 465 (97.2%) donations positive for HIV-1, 6 (1.3%) for HIV-2 (monotypic infection) and 7 (1.5%) for HIV-1 and HIV-2 (dual infection). CONCLUSION: We show the presence of HIV-2 infection among the blood donors and the need for incorporating HIV-2 detection also in the NAT systems.
PURPOSE: In India, HIV-2 epidemic is alongside with HIV-1. Blood banks are introducing nucleic acid testing (NAT) for screening. The limitation of NAT systems is the inability to detect HIV-2. MATERIALS AND METHOD: An analysis of HIV screening of a blood bank at a tertiary care center from 1998 to 2007 was carried out. RESULTS: A total of 175026 donors were screened by serological assays and 789 were reactive for HIV antibody. Only 478 (61%) were confirmed positive by Western blot/immunoblot. There were 465 (97.2%) donations positive for HIV-1, 6 (1.3%) for HIV-2 (monotypic infection) and 7 (1.5%) for HIV-1 and HIV-2 (dual infection). CONCLUSION: We show the presence of HIV-2 infection among the blood donors and the need for incorporating HIV-2 detection also in the NAT systems.
Authors: Meena Mishra; Seema Agrawal; M S Qazi; Arvind Kurhade; R M Powar; Rajendra Surpam Journal: Indian J Med Res Date: 2016-04 Impact factor: 2.375