Residual risk of transfusion-transmitted viral infections in Spain, 1997-2002, and impact of nucleic acid testing

Estimates of the risk of bloodborne viral infections are essential for monitoring the safety of the blood supply and the impact of new screening tests. Incidence rates of seroconversion and the residual risk for HBV, HIV and HCV were calculated among Spanish repeat donors between 1997 and 1999 at 22 blood donation centres, and at 7 centres between 2000 and 2002. The residual risk per million donations was estimated to be 18.67 for HBV, 2.49 for HIV and 10.96 for HCV (between 1997 and 1999). For the 2000-2002 period, the residual risk per million donations was estimated to be 9.78 for HBV, 2.48 for HIV and 3.94 for HCV. Between 1999 and 2003, about 3.4 million donations were tested by NAT, mainly in pools of 44 donations, in 12 of the 22 Spanish blood donation centres participating in the study. Eight anti-HCV negative and HCV-RNA positive donations were found, which represent an approximate yield of 1/420,000, versus a projected yield of 1/240,000 obtained from 1995-1997 data. The residual risks of transfusion-transmitted viral infections in Spain were low, and with the implementation of NAT these risks are even lower.