Only 6 Of 57 Blood Banks Double-Check Sample For Infections

BHUBANESWAR, 16 DEC 2020:

Nine years after the high court had in July 2011 asked Odisha to carry out pre-transfusion blood screening in all blood banks using the NAT PCR technology, along with the usual ELISA test, the government has done so in only six of the 57 blood banks in the state. It plans to expand the technology in seven other blood banks soon.

Sources said the government was planning to introduce NAT PCR in blood banks in Bargarh, Balangir, Balasore, Baripada, Koraput, Jeypore and Jharsuguda. The technology is already available in two blood banks each in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar and the blood banks in Berhampur and Burla (Sambalpur).

Additional chief secretary (health) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said the state government was committed to expanding the test to cover at least 80% of the blood collected. “The matter was discussed in the expenditure finance committee recently. We will float tenders soon to invite service providers of the technique,” he said.

Blood banks that have NAT PCR (nucleic acid testing using polymerase chain reaction) technology use it to screen blood for a second time, to detect anomalies not found in the ELISA method. NAT PCR technology can spot HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C better. The ELISA test may miss these infections during the window period (early days of infection) as it uses antibodies to detect a virus, while NAT PCR detects it from DNA and RNA.

The high court had in July 2011 had asked the government to introduce the second screening test while hearing a petition concerning a 10-month-old child, who received blood from a Red Cross blood bank in Municipal Hospital in Bhubaneswar, and tested positive for HIV seven months later.The Times Of India