NAT Screening For HIV At Blood Banks: Are We On The Right Track?

NAT screening for TTI is the in thing these days.Before lapping up this new technology eagerly one should be very cautious.Some points worth pondering over, about NAT in its present format (especially for HIV screening): NAT screening is routinely done on plasma specimens. Plasma specimen in place of PBMC (preripheral blood mononuclear cells)is employed as the process is less tedious and apparently gives clinically valid results.This should be open to scrutiny. In fact, National Institute for communicable diseases (NICD), Delhi (1999) on its website has recommended and described PCR procedures for HIV  only on PBMC.

Similarly, Molecular Pathology resources have deemed NAT tests on Plasma RNA instead of proviral DNA only as a surrogate marker. Busch has described (review article Transfusion 2009)the various stages in the life cycle of transfusion-transmissible infection: the eclipse,…