HIV-1 p24 antigen testing in blood banks: results from Saudi Arabia

HIV-1 p24 antigen testing was introduced to increase sensitivity in the early detection of HIV infection in blood donors. Since the introduction of HIV-1 p24 antigen testing in Saudi Arabia, we have failed to detect a single positive case. Over a three-year period, only four indeterminates were dete...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of biomedical science 2003-01, Vol.60 (2), p.102-104
Main Authors: Alamawi, S., Abutaleb, A., Qasem, L., Masoud, S., Memish, Z., Al Khairy, K., Kheir, O., Bernvil, S., Hajeer, A.H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AIDS Serodiagnosis - methods
Blood Banks
Blood Donors
HIV core protein p24
HIV Core Protein p24 - blood
HIV Infections - diagnosis
Humans
Nucleic acids
Saudi Arabia
Unnecessary Procedures
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Summary:HIV-1 p24 antigen testing was introduced to increase sensitivity in the early detection of HIV infection in blood donors. Since the introduction of HIV-1 p24 antigen testing in Saudi Arabia, we have failed to detect a single positive case. Over a three-year period, only four indeterminates were detected out of 24,654 blood donors. All four proved negative by confirmatory testing. Based on this experience, we believe that resources would be better directed to pooled nucleic acid testing and that p24 serological testing should be abandoned.
ISSN:0967-4845
2474-0896
DOI:10.1080/09674845.2003.11783683