Individual Donor NAT Testing for Early Detection of HIV and Hepatitis B&C Infections in blood

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Individual Donor NAT Testing for Early Detection of HIV and Hepatitis B&C  Infections in blood, now in Greater Kailash Hospital Indore

While Blood saves lives, sometimes unsafe blood transfusion can lead to serious infections. With the increase in Transfusion-Transmitted Infections (TTI’s), ensuring safe blood transfusion has become of utmost importance for the medical fraternity. Recent RTI report shows that unsafe blood caused 2234 HIV infections in India in just last 17 months. In Maharashtra alone there were 276 HIV infections from blood during this period, which is third highest among all the states in India.

Working towards its commitment of keeping patient’s safety on priority, Greater Kailash Hospital has introduced ID-NAT (Individual Donor Nucleic Acid Test) for screening of blood donors for HIV, HBV and HCV prior to transfusion.

 ID-NAT is the next generation advancement in blood safety. It detects HIV, HBV and HCV infections in blood at a very early stage compared to conventional tests like ELISA. Due to early detection, ID-NAT helps in reducing risk of infection through transfused blood significantly. Risk of TTI’s increases even more for patients requiring regular blood transfusions like Thalassemia, Sickle cell anaemia or Cancer patients. One unit of blood can be given to 3 persons in components, and if the blood is contaminated it can risk 3 lives at once.

                                       Early Detection by ID-NAT compared to mandatory Elisa Test 

Countries like US, France, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Thailand, China, South Africa have made NAT mandatory for blood screening. In India only a handful of blood banks are using NAT testing.

With the increasing numbers of TTI’s there is an urgent need to make ID-NAT testing mandatory and Greater Kailash Hospital has taken a much required step towards the direction of blood safety. It is the first hospital in Madhya Pradesh to use NAT-Testing for screening blood donors.