Residual risk of HIV, HCV and HBV in Canada

摘要

Background: Residual risk is estimated as the product of the incidence and the infectious window period, the time during which a blood donation could be infectious but the assay may not detect it. In 2011 nucleic acid multiplex testing (MPX) was implemented in 6 unit minipools (previously 24 unit minipools). MPX also included hepatitis B (HBV) NAT for the first time (complementing HBsAg screening) in addition to HIV-1 and hepatitis C (HCV) as before. We aimed to estimate window period risk-day equivalents for MAX, and the residual risk of viral infections in blood donations updated to reflect current incidence and testing.