The Kerala State AIDS Control Society (KSACS), which conducted an inquiry into the incident wherein a nine-year-old cancer patient had contracted HIV reportedly while undergoing blood transfusions at the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC), is learnt to have recommended that improved and advanced blood screening tests with better sensitivity be made available in the blood banks in at least five government medical colleges in the State.
The report is expected to be submitted to the government on Tuesday. The expert committee under the Joint Director of Medical Education, deputed by the government, is also expected to submit its report Tuesday.
The KSACS, as the nodal agency for ensuring blood safety in the State, had primarily looked into whether the safe blood transfusion guidelines mandated by the National AIDS Control Organisation had been necessarily followed by the RCC blood bank, including screening of blood donors.
While the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections during the window period is universally accepted, the KSACS is learnt to have suggested that the government initiate steps to introduce Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAT) in the blood banks in five government MCHs, as this will significantly reduce the window period before which HIV virus in blood can be detected.
Window period
The window period is the time between potential exposure to HIV infection and the point when the test will give an accurate result.
At present, all government blood banks use Elisa test, mandated by NACO, to screen the blood collected. The test has a window period of 45 days to three months before which it can detect the presence of HIV. During the window period a person can be infected and be very infectious but still test HIV negative.
“Total elimination of the window period may not be possible, but NAT can bring down the window period to 10-12 days. We also think that pre-donation counselling should improve so that donors are made better aware of the consequences of blood donation, if at all they have been exposed to any high-risk behaviour. This means that more counsellors are needed in our blood banks,” a senior Health official said.
