Is dual testing for hepatitis C necessary? Modelling the risk of removing hepatitis C antibody testing for Australian blood donations.

ABSTRACT:

Background and objectives

Parallel testing of blood donations for hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody and HCV RNA by nucleic acid testing (NAT) has been standard practice in Australia since 2000. Meanwhile, NAT technologies have improved, and HCV has become a curable disease. This has resulted in a significant reduction in the risk and clinical consequences of HCV transmission through transfusion. This study aimed to estimate the residual risk (RR) under various testing options to determine the optimal testing strategy.

Materials and methods

A developed deterministic model calculated the RR of HCV transmission for four testing strategies. A low, mid and high estimate of the RR was calculated for each. The testing strategies modelled were as follows: universal dual testing, targ

SUBMITTER: Roy Choudhury A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10952898 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature