PARIS, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- French researchers said screening blood samples from organ donors for the RNA of viruses could reduce the risk of disease transmission to transplant recipients.
Potential organ and tissue donors currently are screened for the presence of blood antibodies to viral diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C. However, if a donor is sick but his or her body has not yet fully responded to the infection with antibodies, then it may be too soon for tests to pick up evidence of the infection.
Researchers at Hospital Henri Mondor determined nucleic acid testing could detect the RNA of HIV -- the retrovirus that causes AIDS -- or the RNA of hepatitis C virus in a large series of donors.
They identified five hepatitis-positive persons among 2,119 organ donors that had originally tested negative for hepatitis antibodies. They found one hepatitis-positive person in 631 tissue donors who had tested negative for antibodies. No new HIV cases were found among those who tested negative for HIV antibodies.
